Reflection Of Two Hearts
by Toasty Warrior
Summary: They say the heart holds many emotions and none is stronger than love, it can be reflected in a number of ways and for two certain individuals this reflection will lead them to something they have always wanted.
1. Fragile Hearts

Naruto Uzumaki was literally worn out, he didn't think he could continue walking anymore, but he willed himself to continue on as he quickly readjusted himself to better carry Sasuke home. He still didn't know how he did it, but he was happy because he had kept his promise to his other teammate, Sakura Haruno who was probably at the front gates worried out of her mind about what had happened to them and he just smiled as he continued walking, thinking about what events had transpired beforehand.

_**Flashback**_

_Naruto had learned from Sakura that Sasuke had actually taken up Orochimaru's offer to train him in order to exact his revenge on his brother Itachi. After confronting a pleading Sakura, Naruto felt sorry for her, seeing her like this and out of respect for her love of Sasuke, he vowed to bring him back no matter what._

_He had finally caught up to Sasuke near the Valley Of The End and knew there was something different about him. Naruto spoke out angrily wondering why his best friend and teammate would do such a thing._ _"Why, Sasuke? Why did you leave the village for?"_

_There was no answer from him making Naruto further angry. "I said answer me dammit!"_

_He still did not get an answer from Sasuke who in turn responded by laughing and quickly turning around to show that his curse seal had been activated._

_"It's quite simple dobe, Orochimaru promised me the means to finally take care of Itachi, but I really want to see if this cursed seal of his is actually as powerful as he claims."_

_Without another word Sasuke disappeared from out of Naruto's view and ended up right behind him giving him a kick to the back which sent him back a few feet. Naruto didn't want to resort to fighting, but if that's what it took to bring Sasuke back, he'd do it. "So that's how you want to play Sasuke, Fine!"_

_It was a back and forth battle between Naruto and Sasuke as they unleashed their strongest attacks against each other and it looked as though Sasuke had gained the upper hand when he shoved a chidori right through Naruto's right shoulder, but lucky for him the Kyuubi wasn't about to let Sasuke have all the fun. His chakra flared up and gave Naruto the advantage he needed to win. When the both of them were about to deliver their strongest attacks on each other Naruto had secretly made a shadow clone and kept it hidden until the time was right._

_Just as Sasuke was about to deliver the final blow the shadow clone of Naruto's suddenly appeared giving Sasuke a good kick to the stomach effectively knocking him out and leaving him for the real Naruto to take back to Konoha._

_**End Flashback**_

Naruto's vision started to fade in and out and his body was finally starting to give out on him, but he pushed himself to keep going forward knowing that Sakura being happy would be well worth the trouble. He could see the gates of Konoha off in the distance, but that was all he could see as his vision suddenly gave out and the last thing he saw was the ground below him.

**Days later at the hospital...**

The last thing he remembered before he passed out was seeing the front gates of Konoha and immediately Naruto sprang up only to be greeted by bright lights. He covered his eyes slightly looking around to see exactly where he was and if the smell didn't give it away, the white washed walls did." The hospital, how did I end up here?" he wondered.

He took another look around the room to see if there was any indication of how he got there, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary until he looked at the nightstand next to him to see that someone had brought him flowers. "Flowers, No one usually gives me anything while I'm here… I wonder who they're from."

Upon closer inspection of the flowers he saw that there was a note attached to the bottom and pulled it off. He opened it up recognizing the person's handwriting. It was from Sakura and judging from what she wrote she was very happy.

_Dear Naruto,_

_I bought you flowers since I thought it was a nice thing to do to show my thanks in bringing back Sasuke-kun. I owe you a debt of gratitude I'll never be able to pay back, but someday I'll make it up to you. I'd thank you personally, but every time I came to your room you were still out. I hope that maybe once you get out of the hospital I can properly thank you for keeping your promise._

_Signed,_

_Sakura_

Once he was done reading the note Naruto let a soft smile cross his face knowing that Sakura was finally happy and now she didn't have to worry about him anymore, but why did this make his heart start to hurt all of a sudden? He thought of it as nothing more than jealously getting to him.

"I'm just imagining things… I'm just jealous that's all, jealous because I think Sakura-chan deserves better, but she does have someone better, Sasuke. He'll give her the world and more and I know they'll live happily together from now on." As Naruto sunk back into his hospital bed he didn't realize a few stray tears had managed to escape from his eyes.

**The next day...**

Unlike Naruto who had been out for the past couple of days, Sasuke had actually woken up the next day since his injuries weren't as bad as Naruto's, but unlike him he was treated much worse than Naruto had been. Sasuke had been practically chained to his bed with seals so he couldn't use his chakra or escape, he was pretty much a prisoner of the hospital and he was sure once he was out of here, he'd be put on trial for what he did.

He didn't care about that at the moment since he was too consumed with how Naruto was able to actually beat him.

_"I can't believe that dobe… the dead last was able to beat me with a simple shadow clone, but I have to give him credit for actually thinking of a strategy for once…"_His thoughts were interrupted as voice spoke up to him rather loudly. "Sasuke-kun!" he heard the voice call.

Sasuke turned to see Sakura run in and quickly hug him before taking a seat next to him like she had done for the last few days. She gave him a smile as she started speaking to him ."How are you doing today, Sasuke-kun?"

At first Sasuke didn't feel like answering Sakura, but just to be nice he answered back. "I'm doing fine Sakura… the same as I was yesterday and the day before… honestly I don't know why you're here to see me. Why don't you go see how the dobe's doing?"

"I tried to go see Naruto this morning, but when I got to his room it was empty. It seems as though he recovered much earlier than they anticipated and they allowed him to go, but that's not important right now. The important thing is that I get to spend some time with you Sasuke-kun."

For the next few hours Sasuke was forced to listen to Sakura ramble on about how she did this with Ino and that and it started to get on his nerves. In fact Sakura had worn out her welcome on the day he woke up. She had continuously hugged him and cried her eyes out saying how much she had missed him and how glad she was that he was back. He had finally had enough and practically shouted at Sakura. "Will you shut up for one minute?"

Sakura was shocked by Sasuke's sudden outbursts; she suddenly got quiet and listened to what he had to say. "God dammit, don't you have anything else better to do Sakura than constantly annoy me? If you spend as much time training as you did annoying me, maybe you'd be a better shinobi, but no you're not… you're just a typical girl that joined the academy because you wanted to get close to me… well you know what? I've had it with you!"

Sakura was brought to tears by what Sasuke said next.

"I have no interest in you Sakura! You're a waste of space and a disgrace to shinobi everywhere! Why don't you do us all a favor and quit while you have the chance!"

That was all it took for Sakura to finally break. Sasuke's harsh words to her were like getting stabbed with a kunai over and over again and it was just too much for her to take at this moment. Her heart felt like it was being torn into millions of pieces. She quickly got up and ran out of the room not bothering to say anything to Sasuke who looked on with a smirk at what he accomplished as he closed his eyes falling back to sleep.

**With Naruto**

Naruto had been released from the hospital earlier in the morning and he had planned on going over to Sakura's house to talk to her like she had wanted, but he just didn't feel like it. Now that she was with Sasuke he figured why would she want to see him let alone talk to him? He had spent the last thirty minutes or so kicking a stone down the main path and decided to head home, but he stopped when he heard the sound of someone crying. "Someone's crying? I wonder who it could be."

Naruto didn't want to reveal himself to whoever was crying so he stuck to the trees and bushes the closer he got to the sound of the crying. He peaked out from behind the tree and spotted someone sitting on a bench crying. He instantly recognized who it was from her hair since no one else had pink hair. Naruto's heart sunk seeing Sakura crying her eyes out like that so he hesitated to approach her.

_"Would she even want to talk to me? Dammit! I don't care! I care too much for her to leave her like this!"_ He approached cautiously for Sakura didn't seem to notice him and he quietly took a seat next to her before speaking up softly,"Sakura-chan?"

Sakura slowly turned her head and saw Naruto staring at her with a soft smile. "Hey Sakura-chan…" Sakura was surprised to see Naruto there, but at the moment she really didn't want to talk to anyone so she plastered on her best fake smile and wiped the tears from her eyes before speaking.

"Hey Naruto… before you jump to any conclusions, I was just crying because I'm happy that Sasuke and me are finally together… in fact I think I'll go see how he's doing right now ."Sakura got up from the bench and tried to walk away, but she felt Naruto gently tug her back down and judging from his facial expression, he wasn't buying what she said.

"Don't lie too me Sakura-chan, I could tell from the way you were crying wasn't out of happiness, but sadness. What happened?"

Sakura tried her best to fight back the tears that wanted to be spilled but her emotions always got the best of her and she finally broke down turning away from Naruto in shame as she cried again.

"It was what Sasuke said too me… he said some horrible stuff…"Sakura's words remained unfinished as her sobbing grew louder so Naruto did the best thing he could think of at the moment. He gently wrapped his arms around Sakura and provided her with some much needed comfort. She buried her head into his jacket and continued crying for a few minutes while Naruto rocked her back and forth trying to comfort her some more. He let a small blush cross his face being this close to his crush.

When he thought Sakura was done crying Naruto carefully tried removing himself from their hug, but was surprised when Sakura stopped him. "Let's remain like this for a few more minutes please Naruto?" Naruto blushed some more at Sakura's comment and gave her a smile as he answered back "Sure Sakura-chan…"

They remained like that for a few more minutes before Sakura finally calmed down enough to tell Naruto about what Sasuke had said to her. He was utterly shocked what Sasuke had said to her and it made him even more furious that he would disregard her feelings like that.

"I can't believe teme would say those words to you, I'll kick his ass once he gets out of the hospital for saying that to you!"

Sakura couldn't help but laugh at Naruto's mannerisms, he may act childish at times, but he was truly a caring individual and Sakura was glad to have him as a friend. They said their goodbyes to each other and headed off in separate directions. Sakura was walking back to her house when she heard a voice call from behind her and turned around to see Naruto running towards her. "Naruto I thought you lived in the opposite direction?"

He sheepishly scratched the back of his head before answering back. "I do, but for some reason I felt like walking you home, is that okay with you Sakura-chan?"

"Sure I don't mind Naruto…" It didn't take them long to reach Sakura's house when they did, she turned to face Naruto one last time before heading into her house. "Thanks for listening to me Naruto… I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Don't mention it Sakura-chan, that's what friends are for!"

Sakura gave Naruto one last smile before opening her door and closing it leaving him standing there as he thought about what had happened today. Perhaps what happened to them today was a sign of things to come and Naruto thought maybe it could develop into something more.


	2. Departure

Morning came fast in Konoha and one Hokage in particular still wished it was sun down so she could get some more sleep. Tsunade didn't exactly have a great night because of what had happened with Sasuke and the council and Danzo breathing down her neck didn't make things any easier, especially the paperwork before her. Tsunade sighed as she finished writing down something on a piece of paper, oblivious to the world around her until a voice spoke up to her that is "Hey, Tsunade!"

She immediately turned around in her chair to see who was in the office and it was none other than her fellow Sanin and resident super pervert Jiraiya who cracked a smile at her as he jumped in from the office window. "Jiraiya… I'm surprised to see you up this early, let alone back in Konoha too."

Jiraiya gave Tsunade a smirk before answering back."Well, you know me, I like to keep on top of things and a little birdie told me that Naruto got involved in a fight with the Uchiha, is that true?"

"Yes, it is Jiraiya and I'm surprised you were able to find out so quickly in a short amount of time."

"I don't keep my scouts around for nothing and besides I want to hear the juicy details on what happened."

"Well, there's not much to say other than Naruto was successful in bringing back Sasuke Uchiha, but now that he's back I've had some major backlash from the council on what to do with him…"

"Bah! Those old geezers argue about the littlest of things, but anyway that's not why I came here."

"Then why are you here Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya remained silent for a few moments trying to think how to best explain to Tsunade what he wanted to do with Naruto. "Well, Tsunade it's harder than it sounds, but since I know some of the villagers are probably mad at Naruto for hurting their precious Uchiha. More than likely it will give them a good excuse to attack him for that, but that's where I want to come in, I've been thinking about it and it's as good as any to take Naruto on a training trip for a few years."

"How many years are you thinking about exactly Jiraiya?"

"Well, I'm not too sure right now, but to get in some good training I'll need to keep him away from the village for at least three to four years."

"That's a long time to be away from the village Jiraiya, but for some reason I doubt Naruto will disagree with you since it would do good for his training to become Hokage."

"Then it's settled, I'll take him away from the village for that time to train him, now I just got to go find him, but first I've got a little research to go do."

Tsunade's face turned sour at Jiraiya's mention of research as she quickly grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and shoved him into the nearest wall as a killer intent radiated off her. "This research of yours better not involve spying on the women at the hot springs Jiraiya and if it does, I'll do worse to you than when you looked in on me, got it?"

Jiraiya cringed somewhat and gulped as he answered back softly, "Don't worry Tsunade… it's nothing like that."

Suddenly Jiraiya found himself on the ground and he instantly ran towards the window not wanting to incur the wrath of Tsunade anymore. Once he was gone, Tsunade took a seat back in her chair and just smirked as she continued her paperwork."I've still got it after all these years."

**At Sakura's House**

Despite what happened yesterday between Sasuke and her, Sakura actually woke up in a good mood this morning. She didn't exactly know why, but she figured it had something to do with Naruto cheering her up. She didn't have anything else planned to do today and she sure as hell wasn't going to visit Sasuke after their little incident yesterday, so she decided to go see Naruto. Sakura took her time getting dressed knowing that Naruto probably wasn't allowed to train just yet because of his injuries and all.

As she was brushing her hair a voice from within her head spoke up. _**"My, my, someone seems to be in a good mood despite what happened yesterday."**_

Sakura never usually liked talking to her inner self about stuff, especially when it came to stuff like her feelings. She tried ignoring it, but her inner self wasn't about to be ignored so she spoke up a little bit louder.

_**"Hey! I'm talking to you! Answer me!"**_

"_There's nothing to talk about, I'm in a good mood because Naruto cheered me up and it's nothing more than that."_

_**"Then why are you going to visit him then Hmm?"**_

"_Because… I just want to see how he's doing and besides I want to properly thank him for bringing Sasuke back."_

_**"I think it's something more, you're probably falling for him now!"**_

_"Shut up!"_

_**"Fine… I can see that you're not in the mood to talk about it right now, but someday you'll realize there's something more between you guys."**_

Sakura clenched her fist in anger yelling loud enough to be heard inside her house. "I said shut up!"

Suddenly the door to Sakura's room opened up to reveal her mother who had a look of concern on her face as she spoke to Sakura. "I heard yelling from downstairs and wondered what happened, is everything all right Sakura?"

"Don't worry mom, everything is fine, I just had to let out a little anger from what happened yesterday."

"All right honey, I just thought you were angry about something else."

"No, no I'm fine now mom, I'm just going to go out for a little while if you don't mind."

"Sure I don't mind honey, but where exactly are you going?"

Sakura wasn't too sure of how her mother would handle her going to see Naruto, so she deiced to lie to her and tell her that she was going to Ino's. "I'm just going to hang out with Ino for a little while since she wanted to know what happened to me yesterday."

"That's fine with me Sakura, but just makes sure your home before it gets dark."

Sakura gave her mother a smile as she finished combing her hair and putting on her sandals before heading over to Naruto's.

**Naruto's Apartment**

While Sakura was heading to his house, Naruto on the other hand was still in a deep sleep, having a wonderful dream about his pink haired teammate. In his dream he had finally won Sakura over and he was on a dream date with her, everything was going according to his plan and once they were done with their date they spent a few minutes outside of her house and talked about how their date went. To his surprise Sakura leaned in and was about to plant a kiss on his lips.

Naruto was woken up by a knock on his door. "Dammit…"

He mentally cursed to himself as he rolled over in his bed and got out slowly making his way towards his door and from the sound of things whoever was knocking on his door seemed to be in a hurry or just wanted to be annoying. Whoever it was, Naruto was definitely going to make them pay for interrupting his wonderful dream, but his attitude changed when he opened up the door to reveal someone he least expected to see, "Sakura-chan?"

Sakura gave Naruto a smile as she answered back. "Hey Naruto, sorry for waking you up, but I just wanted to come by and see how you were doing."

"I'm doing fine Sakura, but why did you come all this way to see me? Didn't you have something else better to do than see me?"

"Not really, but I thought you'd like to hang out today since I kind of owe it to you for bringing Sasuke back."

"You don't have to thank me for bringing Sasuke back Sakura-chan, it was my promise to you…"

Realizing what he had just said Naruto turned his head to the side and tried to hide a blush that was forming on his cheeks while Sakura couldn't help but laugh at his sudden shyness. They remained silent for a few moments before Sakura broke it.

"I insist Naruto, I promised you in my letter that I'd make it up to you somehow and I can't think of a better way than to hang out and maybe even perhaps go on a date later."

"Did you say date Sakura-chan?"

Sakura blushed before answering back. "Yes, I did Naruto."

Naruto didn't even answer back as he immediately ran back in his room and closed the door and started getting dressed leaving Sakura at the front door. _"You'd think he would have the decency to ask if I wanted to come in, but I suppose he's too excited about today…"_

Sakura let herself in and it was the first time she had actually been in his apartment. It wasn't as bad as she thought it would be, but there were things thrown around, clothing on the floor, empty ramen cups all over the place and worst of all worn out furniture. She decided not to step further into his apartment and just waited for him to get dressed which wasn't too long. Within a few minutes he was dressed in his usual orange and blue outfit. He gave Sakura a smile as he adjusted his headband.

"So are you ready to go Sakura-chan?"

"Of course I am Naruto; I was just waiting for you."

Once they were outside Naruto didn't bother to lock his door making Sakura wonder why, but then again he probably didn't have anything of value so she just put it to the back of her mind as they continued their walk towards the center of the village. As they did Sakura couldn't help but notice the glares and the people talking under their breath as Naruto and her continued walking.

"Is that girl crazy?"

"Why is she walking with that demon?"

Not wanting to hear any more of the villagers comments Sakura grabbed Naruto's hand and made a beeline for an area where there was no villagers since she wanted to ask Naruto why the villagers were acting the way they were around him. "Why are the villagers always so cruel to you for Naruto?"

Naruto didn't answer back as he seemed lost in himself trying to think of an answer. He didn't want to tell Sakura the truth, at least not right now since he was afraid she would hate him even more, he wiped the stray tears that suddenly appeared from his eyes and put on his best mask as he finally answered back. "I'm not too sure myself Sakura, but it's probably to do with me being all alone and you know how much they hate parent less kids around here…"

Sakura knew there was something more to this than what Naruto was telling her since she saw him cry for those few moments. She would have asked him more, but she thought it was too painful for him to talk about it and besides she didn't want to ruin this day. Sakura put a hand on Naruto's shoulder and gave him a smile. "I know it's probably something painful Naruto, so I'm not going to ask about it anymore since I'm sure you don't want this day ruined right?"

Naruto in turn gave Sakura a soft smile as he answered. "Yeah you're right Sakura-chan."

Sakura nodded back as she walked back towards the main street leaving Naruto standing there for a moment. _"I wish I could tell you the truth Sakura-chan, but I just can't… not right now."_

The rest of the day passed by rather fast and soon enough Naruto's stomach let him know it was near dinner time by grumbling at him loudly, making him sheepishly scratch the back of his head. "Heh! Heh! It seems as though my stomach needs some food."

Sakura just laughed as she answered back. "I guess since I've been dragging you everywhere today Naruto, I'll let you pick where we eat."

"I know exactly where I want to eat too! Ichiraku's!"

It wasn't exactly what Sakura had in mind when it came to having dinner for their first date, but then again it couldn't be any worse than having dango. Sakura watched as Naruto ran past everyone towards Ichiraku's leaving her behind once again. "Hey Naruto wait up!" she called out to him as she ran to catch up with him.

Sakura finally caught up to Naruto and saw that he had already taken a seat on the nearest stool and sat near him. There was no one in sight and it made Sakura wonder if maybe the stand was closed for the night. "It doesn't look like anyone is here Naruto."

Naruto smirked as he spoke up. "Leave that to me Sakura-chan! Hey old man, are you there?"

On cue an old man clad in a white apron came from behind the curtain and smiled when he saw Naruto. "Well, well if it isn't my favorite customer Naruto!"

Teuchi noticed Sakura sitting next to Naruto and gave her a smile as he spoke up to her. "And who is this Naruto, your girlfriend or something?"

Teuchi's question caught Naruto and Sakura off guard for a moment before they realized what he was implying and it made the both of them blush a deep red while Naruto tried to best explain to Teuchi it wasn't like that. "No", Sakura-chan isn't my girlfriend, she's my teammate and friend, we just decided to get some dinner since it was getting late, right Sakura-chan?"

"Yeah, we just wanted to get some dinner."

Teuchi just laughed at Naruto and Sakura's responses and decided to change the subject. "So what can I get the both of you then?"

"I'll have the usual old man."

"Well, I haven't had that much ramen before, but I guess I'll take a small bowl of miso ramen."

"Sure thing, I'll have them done soon!"

A few minutes later Teuchi came out with two bowls of ramen, a smaller bowl of ramen for Sakura while Naruto got a much large bowl and he began to slurp down his ramen while Sakura ate hers a little more politely. The rest of the time they were at Ichiraku's, they talked about what was going on around in the village and what they would do with they're training.

Eventually Ayame, Teuchi's daughter joined in on Naruto and Sakura's conversation and ended up mentioning them as a couple and Naruto replied in the same manner he had done with Teuchi making them both laugh once again. After staying for a good hour or so since Naruto had five bowls of ramen, he even tried to argue with Sakura since she insisted on paying for dinner, but one flash of her fist made him change his mind. They said goodbye to Teuchi and Ayame leaving them to close up shop as Naruto walked Sakura back to her house.

They stood outside her house for a moment trying to think of something to say, and Sakura was the first to break the silence. "I had a great time today Naruto."

"I did too Sakura-chan, it was great being able to hang out with you. We should do it again sometime."

"Yeah I suppose you're right…"Naruto scratched the back of his head as Sakura looked down towards the ground, the both of them unsure of what to do now. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow Sakura-chan…"

"Yeah I'll see you tomorrow Naruto" Just like last night Sakura opened her door and gave Naruto a soft smile before closing it.

"I thought for sure she'd at least kiss me on the cheek, but I guess that's asking for too much. I'm probably just getting my hopes up too high if I expect it to evolve past a friendship…"

Naruto was walking past the hot springs when he heard a scream and then heard the sound of a punch and then someone flew past him, landing not too far from him. He instantly recognized the white hair of the person as they got up and acted like nothing had happened to them."Ero-Sennin?" he called out to the person.

Upon hearing his name Jiraiya turned around to see Naruto standing there with a blank expression on his face and Jiraiya did his best to cover up what had just happened since his face was all red. "Hey Naruto, How's it going?"

"Uh… did you get into trouble once again Ero-Sennin?"

"What do you mean Naruto? I was just on my way to find you when some mean old ladies attacked me for no apparent reason."

"Yeah right… you were spying on the women in the hot springs weren't you?"

"Okay, okay so what if I was… it's not like it was my fault… you kept me waiting for so long…"

"What do you mean Ero-Sennin?"

"Well, how should I tell you…?"Naruto seemed puzzled as Jiraiya threw him a backpack filled with his stuff.

"You really should lock your door next time Naruto, people can break in easily, but that's not what I want to talk about, I did you a favor and packed you some supplies since I'm taking you on a four year training trip."

"A training trip" Naruto repeated questionably.

"Yes, I've been wanting to take you on one for a little while now and it's the best time anyway since it will get you away from the villagers and before you say anything about it Naruto, I talked to Tsunade earlier and she said it would benefit you since it would help to make you stronger on your way to becoming Hokage, don't you agree?"

Jiraiya did bring up a lot of good points about going on this training trip and besides being away from Konoha for four years to train with one of the legendary Sanin would benefit him a lot and besides Naruto was sure no one would care if he did leave, but just as he was about to leave his mind shot back to Sakura, she had the right to know that he was leaving.

"It does sound like a lot of fun Ero-Sennin, but before we leave do you mind if I make a quick stop somewhere and tell a friend that I'm leaving?"

"I don't mind Naruto, but after you do meet me by the front gates to the village all right?" Jiraiya stated.

"Sure thing Ero-Sennin!" answered Naruto back.

Naruto made his way back to Sakura's house hoping that she was still awake since it was late now and much to his dismay when he arrived the house was pitch black, not a light on, but he wasn't about to give up as he silently climbed up to the second story window and gently knocked on Sakura's window hoping that she would answer. A few minutes passed by and there was no sign of the window opening, Naruto sighed and was about to jump down when the window opened revealing a still awake Sakura who seemed surprised to see Naruto out this late.

"Naruto, What are you doing up so late? Is something wrong?"

"It's really nothing Sakura-chan, but I felt as though you had a right to know first…"

Naruto held in his breath for a few seconds before continuing."Ero-Sennin wants to take me on a training trip for four years and we're leaving tonight…"

"What? Are you serious Naruto?"

"Yes, I am Sakura-chan… Ero-Sennin said it would benefit me and I have to agree with him."

Sakura started to cry at Naruto's words and before he knew it Sakura had joined him outside her window and pulled him into a hug much like last night, but this time he didn't blush and returned the hug as he comforted Sakura once again.

"There's nothing for you to be sad about Sakura-chan. I'm just going away from the village for a little while."

"It's just that Konoha is going to be so much quieter without you and I'm actually going to miss you…"

"I know, but before you know it, four years will pass by fast and I'll be back. I'm doing this because I need to get stronger not only for myself, but for those around me."

Sakura felt better from Naruto's words as she lessened her grip on him and pulled back from their hug and then she gave him a soft smile. "Promise me something before you leave Naruto?"

"Sure Sakura-chan."

"Promise me that you'll at least write to me once a month to tell me how you're doing?"

Naruto smiled back at Sakura as he pulled her into another hug. "It's a promise Sakura-chan and if it's not too much trouble, can I also ask a promise of you too?"

"What is it Naruto?"

Before answering Sakura, Naruto tenderly ran his hand through her hair. "Do you think it's possible for you to grow your hair out? I really liked it when it was long… it made you look more beautiful."

Sakura blushed red at Naruto's statement, but just smiled as she answered back. "I think I can handle that promise."

Naruto and Sakura remained in their hug for a few more moments before they finally broke it apart because Naruto had to get back to Jiraiya who was waiting outside the front gates for him and sure enough he was still there and he gave Naruto a smirk.

"Were you able to say goodbye to your girlfriend Naruto?"

"What? What? Wait? Were you spying on me?"

"It's not hard to miss a tender moment like that Naruto…"

"Why you dirty old… I'm got to kill you!"

Jiraiya just laughed at the now embarrassed Naruto who continued to chase after him yelling obscenities as the both of them left Konoha not to return for four years, but within that time away Jiraiya was sure that he could shape Naruto into a much stronger shinobi.


	3. Time Skip

It had only been a day since Naruto and Jiraiya had left Konoha for their four year training trip together and already Naruto was missing Konoha. He had woken up this morning about to do his usual routine when he realized that he was sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag with only a few supplies. He sighed as he looked over at Jiraiya who was still sound asleep mumbling in his sleep about some cute girls it seemed from what Naruto could gather. He just smiled at Jiraiya and quickly got dressed; taking a walk towards the river that wasn't too far from their campsite. Naruto stared down into the water thinking about what Sakura was doing at this very moment.

_"I wonder what you're up too Sakura-chan? I wonder how much you'll change once I get back in four years." _Naruto's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a noise from behind him and he quickly pulled out a kunai and threw it in the direction of the sound. It must have made impact as he heard a yelp and then ran in the direct of the scream hoping that maybe he had caught the enemy off guard, but he was surprised to see what the kunai had hit."Ero-Sennin?" he called out.

Fortunately for Jiraiya the kunai had just missed him by a few inches and he was currently cowering in fear of the kunai almost hitting him. Naruto on the other hand could only laugh at Jiraiya's little predicament.

"You wouldn't be laughing Naruto if you were the one that almost got hit by a kunai!"

"Sorry Ero-Sennin, it's just I thought of you as a braver man than this…"

Jiraiya gave Naruto a sour look before answering back. "Well, it caught me off guard!"

Naruto continued to laugh as Jiraiya got off of the ground, dusting himself off before regaining his seriousness. "Anyway, let's forget that little accident happened. I was trying to find you so we can talk about you're training regimen and how it will shape up for the next four years."

"I just hope it involves more hands on training this time Ero-Sennin and not me having to use my sexy justu to get your attention…" stated Naruto.

"Well, yeah… I suppose so, but what's important right now is that you get some more rest."

"But…"

"No buts Naruto, it's important for a shinobi to rest once in a while and besides if we hurry up we can get to the next village by this afternoon! I hear they have a hot springs, perfect for my research!"

Naruto could only smack his face in disappointment at what Jiraiya just said.

_"Oh boy… this is going to be a long four years."_

**Back In Konoha**

Sakura herself had just woken up and what happened last night was still fresh on her mind. Naruto had left on a four year training trip to get stronger and it started to make her question herself as a shinobi. Was she truly meant for the life of a shinobi? Sure she had held her own in a few of the missions team seven had been on, but after a while the enemy would get the upper hand on her, forcing Naruto or Sasuke to intervene. She felt so useless sometimes; it was eating away at her especially what Sasuke had said to her in the hospital.

_"You're a disgrace to shinobi everywhere! You should give up on being one!"_

Sakura tried to ignore those thoughts for the moment as she combed her hair in front of the mirror, but as much as she tried she just couldn't shake those thoughts out of her head as she stared into the mirror at herself. She didn't want to be left behind, not this time. She would go to the one person that could teach her, make her stronger so she could keep up with Naruto and Sasuke.

**At Hokage Tower**

It had been yet another uneventful morning for Tsunade, she was still knee deep in paperwork and now the council was starting to get on her nerves since they demanded that she do something about Sasuke before the end of the day. She was about to reach into her desk to take a drink when there was a knock on the door. Tsunade quickly withdrew her hand from the desk as she answered "Come in!"

Tsunade had expected to see one of the council members walk in, but she was surprised to see Sakura walk in who gave her a small smile as she quietly walked up to the desk. "Sakura what a pleasant surprise, what can I do for you this morning?"

"Well… I was wondering about something Hokage-sama…" Sakura stopped mid-sentence as if she wasn't too sure how Tsunade would react to her asking about training her, but she had vowed to herself she wouldn't fall behind again. She steeled her nerves as she continued talking.

"I don't expect this of you, but I was wondering… do you think you can train me in the art of healing?"

Tsunade was quite surprised by Sakura's request and she was about to say no when curiosity got the better of her. "Why do you ask me to train you for Sakura Haruno?"

Sakura took a few deep breathes to calm herself down as she answered back. "Because I realized something this morning Hokage-sama…"

"And what would that be?" asked Tsunade.

"I realized that both of my teammates are far stronger than I'll ever be… I realize that if I ever want to help them, I need to train so I can become stronger to better help them out… no! Just not that! I want to train to become stronger so I can better protect those around me and I also want to show a certain asshole that I'm not as weak as he thinks I am."

Tsunade was quite impressed by Sakura's speech. Usually she was never impressed by speeches, but Sakura's held some truth to it and her words sounded like they came from the heart. Tsunade could only guess that maybe Naruto had something to do with it. She then got up from her chair and walked over to the young shinobi putting a hand on her shoulder. "You know Sakura, usually I'd never think about teaching anyone else, but your little speech inspired me…"

Sakura looked at her nervously as she spoke. "Does that mean what I think it does it does it does it does Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade gave Sakura a smile before answering back. "Yes, Sakura, I will train you, but be forewarned, my training is quite brutal and I expect only the best from my students. Can I trust that you'll give me everything?"

"Of course Hokage-sama, I promise I'll get it everything I've got!" Sakura exclaimed.

"That's great to hear Sakura, but you're training will have to wait until tomorrow morning. I've got some business to attend to that pertains to one of your teammates."

"I don't mind waiting Hokage-sama and it will be an honor to train with you."

Without saying another word Sakura left Tsunade to her business and she let a smile cross her face thinking about the training she would receive from Tsunade. _"You're not the only one that's going to get stronger within the next four years Naruto!"_

**Time skip: Four Years Later…**

A young man of seventeen years old raced down the road towards Konoha and his traveling companion had a hard time keeping up with him as he called out to him. "Naruto slow down! There's no need to rush! We'll get back to Konoha in less than a day and besides, let's take our time getting there," said Naruto's companion.

"Are you kidding Ero-Sennin? It's been four years since I last stepped foot inside Konoha! I want to get back as soon as I can!" Naruto continued at the pace he was going and deiced to check on Jiraiya who was now lagging behind him quite a ways back. Naruto groaned and decided it was best to slow down for now and allow Jiraiya sometime to rest since they had gone almost six hours without a rest. "All right Ero-Sennin, we'll slowdown for now, but I want to get back to Konoha at least by tomorrow."

"Don't worry Naruto; at the rate we're going right now, we should be back in Konoha by late morning."

"Sounds good to me, if you don't mind Ero-Sennin, I'm going to take a little walk by that river we just saw."

Jiraiya didn't bother answering to Naruto since he had passed out from exhaustion making Naruto crack a little smile as he walked over to where the river was and sat down. In the last four years Naruto had grown a lot and he had finally ditched his blue and orange outfit and instead opted to wear a mostly orange outfit with some black on the jacket. His hair had also grown somewhat in the last four years making Jiraiya comment on how much he looked like a certain Hokage. But what Naruto mostly reflected on was the hellish training he had gone through in the last four years.

_**Flashback to a few years earlier**_

_Naruto and Jiraiya had just left another town and as always Jiraiya had to fulfill his research while Naruto was left doing nothing. He was starting to question wherever Jiraiya really wanted to train him. As they were walking towards the next town Naruto asked him about his training._ _"Hey Ero-Sennin, it's been a few days since we've been traveling and yet you haven't taught me one thing. When are you going to?"_

_"I suppose I could start teaching you something…"_ _Jiraiya reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Naruto who in turn looked at the paper with a confused expression._

_"Just how is this piece of paper supposed to help me with my training Ero-Sennin?"_

_"I suppose it would help if I explained what that piece of paper was…"_

_"Does pertain to your research or someting else? Because if it does, I'm not going to be any part of it…"_

_"I can assure you it has nothing to do with that Naruto. That piece of paper is special because it can tell you what type of elemental you are."_

_"Elemental? Somehow it sounds familiar…"_

_Jiraiya went on to explain to Naruto that each shinobi had a special elemental that they're related too and usually not many people can harness their elemental fully, but those that do train with their elemental can use it to better their justu or even create a new justu based on their elemental._

_"So you mean all I have to do is funnel some of my chakra into this piece of paper and it will tell me what type of elemental I am?"_

_"That pretty much sums it up Naruto."_

_Without another word Naruto channeled some of his chakra into the piece of paper and he was shocked to see the paper cut clean in half._

_"Holy crap, I cut it in half, but I still don't know what type of elemental I am…"_

_"Well, I'll be… you`re wind based Naruto! That's quite something I should add."_

_"What do you mean Ero-Sennin? Is that bad or something?"_

_"Not really Naruto, in fact some shinobi say that wind based users are the strongest since it makes for good offense, but also great defense too, then again it depends on the user. For now you're going to work on perfecting your elemental by trying to cut this leave in half."_

_"Cutting a leaf in half? That sounds so boring!"_

_Then again Naruto couldn't complain since it finally gave him something to do and for the next few months he worked on perfecting his elemental. He used a few shadow clones to help him out since he figured it would make things go much faster and it did and within the following months he perfected his elemental. He was also working on his own justu using his elemental as Jiraiya found out one day._

_Jiraiya had been looking everywhere for Naruto and had no luck finding him until he spotted Naruto and a few of his shadow clones hard at working doing something. He could see that there was a current of strong air going around the clones and he wondered exactly what was going on so he approached Naruto._

_The shadow clones seemed to be molding chakra in the real Naruto's hand while he formed a rasengan in his hand, the next thing Jiraiya knew he was blown back as whatever Naruto was working on backfired on him and set him flying to a tree._

_"Naruto!" yelled out Jiraiya. Jiraiya quickly ran over to Naruto's side to see if he was hurt, but he couldn't see any external damage until he looked down at Naruto's right hand. It was literally broken at the wrist and some of his skin had been peeled back revealing some of the muscle. Naruto opened his eyes and smiled at Jiraiya giving him a cheerful response._

_"I guess I went a little overboard on the training…"_

_"Like hell you did Naruto!"_

_Lucky for Naruto Jiraiya had learned some medical knowledge from Tsunade so he took care of his right hand bandaging it and setting it in a sling._

_"You're lucky your hand wasn't anymore damaged Naruto or else you'd end up with one less hand, but thankfully I was able to treat it. You'll be without it for a few months, but what I want to know is what were you working on that caused your hand to get that damaged?"_

_"Well, I was trying to infuse my wind elemental with the rasengan to see if I could come up with my own justu, but it seems as though I have some work to do on it…"_

_Thanks in part to the Kyuubi Naruto's hand managed to heal much faster than he expected and he started work on his new justu, but at a much slower pace until he was finally able to prefect it which he did. He was able to combine his wind elemental with the rasengan creating a new justu he called the rasenshuriken. He didn't had a chance to use it on an opponent just yet, but he was sure that whoever got hit by it surely wouldn't be getting up._

_**End Flashback**_

Naruto was pulled out of his thoughts as he heard Jiraiya call out to him. "Hey Naruto, Dinner is about done!"

"All right Ero-Sennin! I'll be right there!" Naruto made his way back to their camp, but not before looking off in the distance towards Konoha wondering about another certain person that was close to him. _"I wonder how Sakura-chan is doing."_

**Back In Konoha**

The sun was setting in Konoha and it was just a normal day for mostly everyone expect for an eighteen year old woman who looked outside her window watching as the sun slowly sunk further behind the mountains.

"I can't believe it's been four years already, but like Naruto said they passed by quickly, I just wonder what that knucklehead is up to right now? It's been a month since he last wrote to her and according to his last letter he sent me, he'll be back in Konoha soon, I just wonder when exactly?"

Like Naruto had promised, he had sent Sakura a letter every month telling her of his progress and each letter she read made her that much more excited to see him when he did get back. She had also kept her promise to Naruto and grew her hair out once again. It was about the same length before she was forced to cut it in the chunnin exams albeit just a little bit longer. Ino had teased her about growing her hair out again saying that she was doing it to get Sasuke's attention to which Sakura told her to shut up.

Sakura's hair wasn't the only thing that had gone through changes, she had gone through quite a few changes herself, she had gotten much taller, but Sakura figured she was still shorter than Naruto and Sasuke. Her outfit had gone through the most changes; she ditched the red dress and opted for a red vest, but kept the shorts and added in a pink miniskirt just for looks. She had also filled out in other areas too and hoped to give Naruto a nice nosebleed once he got a good look at her.

Her training had just been just as tough as Tsunade had explained it would be and despite that Sakura had made great progress within the last four years. She was almost on par with Tsunade as far as medic skills, but still lacked in some areas that Tsunade had promised to help her on once she got the time. Sakura now worked at the hospital as a medic-ninja when she wasn't called away on missions. It also reminded her of something she had discovered while she was working at the hospital one day.

_**Flashback**_

_It had been a tough day at the hospital as everyone seemed to be getting either injured or hurt somehow and Sakura was glad that the day was over. The head medic-ninja had asked her to go to the records room to put away some files on patients and curiosity got the better of her as she put down the other patient files and opened up the records to see if Naruto had any records on when he was in the hospital. It wasn't hard to find Naruto's record since he had the thickest of any patient and it made Sakura wonder why._

_She opened his folder and started reading through all of his files. According to most of the files, doctors had refused to treat Naruto for obvious reasons and it was only by the threat of the Third Hokage that he had been treated. Sakura continued to look wondering why the doctors refused to treat him until she come to his record about what had happened to him during his fight with Sasuke._

_"My god…"_

_She looked over the various injuries that he had received during the fight and wondered how someone human could survive that until she scrolled down further and saw something she shouldn't have making her drop his medical file on the floor._

_"No way…"_

_From what Sakura had just read Naruto had the Kyuubi sealed within him which is why he was able to survive Sasuke's attacks and it all made sense to Sakura now. The reason why his medical file was so much bigger than everyone's and why he was constantly beaten up in his youth was in the file. She was brought to tears by this revelation as she slumped down on the floor and continued to cry. Her cries didn't go unnoticed as the door opened to reveal Tsunade who had been in the hospital needing to talk to Sakura herself._

_"Sakura, why are you on the ground crying and why is there…"_

_Tsunade stopped herself mid-sentence as she looked down at the open record and saw that it was Naruto's. She only guessed that Sakura had finally learned the truth about Naruto and that was the reason she was crying. She bent down and embraced Sakura in a hug giving her comfort as Sakura tried to speak._

_"Why Shishou … Why did Naruto have to be given this burden?"_

_Tsunade rocked Sakura back and forth trying to calm her down as she explained to her about Naruto._ _"I wish I could explain it to you Sakura, but it's a burden Naruto was given as an infant and he's had to live with it ever since."_

_"Buy why? He doesn't deserve all the hatred he gets… it's not fair to him. He's human like the rest of us and only wanted someone to care for him and he was denied that. I feel so horrible because I contributed to his pain in some way when we were younger."_

_"Sakura you shouldn't blame yourself for such things, it's not your fault. You were only a child and didn't know any better, but now that you're an adult, you understand better and the best thing you can do for Naruto is support him when he gets back."_

_Sakura wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded in agreement._ _"You're right shishou."_

_**End Flashback**_

Sakura wished she would have known about Naruto's dark secret earlier in her life so she could have been less of a burden to him, but as Tsunade told her it was better to forget the past and look ahead to the future and Sakura couldn't agree more for she was determined to right the wrongs of her past once Naruto got back. She watched as the sun finally sunk behind the mountains and gave a soft smile as she looked off in the distance. "I hope you return soon Naruto…"


	4. Reunions

No sooner had Sakura gone to bed it was morning already and unlike most other days she struggled to wake up this morning. Sakura figured her lack of sleep was due to her still feeling guilty over what she had discovered during the four years Naruto was gone and what he had to go through. For now thought, until he actually got back Sakura pushed those thoughts to the back of her head because she had more important manners to think about, namely what Tsunade had planned for her today.

Sakura started her usual routine by taking a shower, the warm water felt great against her skin and helped to wake her up from her sleepy state. She got dressed in her usual outfit and combed her long pink hair before tying it into a ponytail so it would stay out of her way when she was dealing with things at the hospital. Sakura ate her breakfast like usual and bid her mother goodbye as she walked towards Hokage Tower weaving in and out of the morning crowd that was there for the daily market.

Once Sakura reached her destination she gave out a sigh of relief as she walked into Hokage Tower heading towards the office wondering what Tsunade exactly had in mind for her today. She carefully knocked on the door to the office and waited for Tsunade to call her in. Sakura entered the office and saw that Tsunade was up to her usual task of filling out paperwork, but for some reason she seemed rather happy making Sakura wonder what was up.

"Good morning shishou, I'm reporting for work like I always do."

"Same to you to Sakura and usually this is where I'd usually give you your daily assignment, but today is different; in fact I'm thinking about giving you the day off since you've been working so hard lately."

"But why Shishou, there's work that needs to be done at the hospital, what exactly could be so different about today?"

Tsunade gave Sakura a little smirk before answering back. "Let's just say something exciting will happen today and even if you were to work at the hospital, you'd probably quit halfway through the day."

"I don't exactly get what you're saying shishou, but I could use the day off… thanks!"

Before Tsunade had a chance to answer back Sakura had left the office leaving her to her own devices. _"You'll be quite surprised at who's coming home today Sakura and I know you'll like it."_

**With Sakura**

Sakura wasn't sure what to do with the rest of her day, it was still morning and she wasn't about to go home since her mother would probably question her to death on why Tsunade let her have a day off and she couldn't spend the day with Ino since she was off on a mission with Team 10 and they wouldn't be back until the day after tomorrow. She thought about spending some time with Sasuke, but then she remembered he was also out on a mission with Kakashi somewhere since the both of them were ANBU.

It was still quite amazing to Sakura that she even talked to Sasuke at all despite what happened between them four years ago, but the both of them had made their peace with each other and worked on their friendship. They were best of friends, but also in a way like brother and sister and Sakura was thankful to at least be able to share that bond with Sasuke. Sakura figured it was as good as any to go train since she wanted to hone her skills just a little more. She headed off to the training ground unaware that a certain someone was back finally in Konoha.

**Front Gates of Konoha**

"I can't believe it! We finally made it back to Konoha!" Naruto was ecstatic to finally be back in Konoha. It had been four long years since he had stepped foot into his village and judging from what he could tell not much had changed in the last four years with the expectation of looking towards Hokage Monument he could see that Tsunade's face had been added to the mountain which made him smile.

"I see they finally got Baa-chan's face up there, it's about damn time!" Naruto was about to head off on his own when a voice called out to him.

"Hang up just a second Naruto!"

Naruto turned around to see Jiraiya who was once again short of breath as he tried to keep up with his young apprentice.

"I know you're excited and all Naruto, but seriously, next time wait up for me."

Naruto rubbed his nose and gave Jiraiya a smirk before answering back. "Sorry Ero-Sennin, I guess I'm just a little bit too excited to finally be back in Konoha… anyway I suppose we should go see Baa-chan since we have a few things to report to her right?"

"I'll go report to Tsunade what we learned over the last four years Naruto, you go ahead and explore Konoha for a little bit while I go talk to her, perhaps if you're lucky enough Naruto, you'll run into a few of your friends" replied Jiraiya.

Naruto's face widened at what Jiraiya said as he let out an excited cheer before quieting down to answer. "Thanks Ero-Sennin, but do you want me to meet up with you later somewhere?"

"Don't worry about it Naruto, I'll come looking for you once I'm done talking to Tsunade."

"All right Ero-Sennin, I'll see you alter then!" With that Naruto took off in the direction of the main section of Konoha while Jiraiya looked on with a smile before it turned sour.

"I've been keeping secrets from you for so long Naruto… I only hope once we reveal these secrets to you, you won't hate us for it." Jiraiya then turned his attention towards Hokage Tower and started walking towards it wondering what Tsunade would have to say about this too.

**With Naruto**

Naruto spent a good deal of time just wandering around Konoha trying to find Sakura, but he was having no luck so far and just when he was about to continue his search, his stomach growled at him, letting him know it was hungry. "Well, I guess it's as good as any to have some ramen… I suppose my search for Sakura-chan can wait until my stomach is full."

Naruto decided that the best place for him to go was none other than Ichiraku's subsequently he could find Sakura there, but then again she was never that fond of ramen anyway. He continued towards Ichiraku's and gave a soft smile as his favorite ramen place came more into view. It had not changed much in the last four years and he was happy for that.

Once he got there he took a seat on his usual stool and waited for either Ayame or Teuchi to take his order and it wasn't long before Ayame came out from behind the curtain to the kitchen and smiled at Naruto as she spoke up to him.

"I'm sorry! I didn't realize we had a customer, what can I get for you?" she asked.

Naruto chuckled a little before answering back. "I'll take the usual Ayame-nee-chan!"

"Nee-chan, do I know you from somewhere…?" she inquired.

It took Ayame a few seconds to realize who was sitting in front of her and once she did, she excitedly jumped over the ramen stand and gave Naruto a hug. "Naruto-kun, it's really you! Where have you been the last four years?"

Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head before answering. "Well, let's just say that I've been training for the last four years with Ero-Sennin and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye."

"I kind of figured something like that happened to you since you didn't comeback after your date with your girlfriend." Ayame stated.

Naruto's cheeks reddened at Ayame mentioning Sakura as his girlfriend and he tried to make it sound like they were just friends and nothing more. "Sakura-chan isn't my girlfriend Ayame-nee-chan… she's just a very close friend of mine. I've been looking for her for the last hour or so, but I haven't had any luck. Have you seen her by any chance?"

"I'm afraid not Naruto-kun…" she answered.

"Oh well, I'm sure I can find her later, but first I need something to eat!" Naruto exclaimed.

Ayame smiled at Naruto and then she climbed back over the ramen stand and walked back into the kitchen saying over her shoulder, "I'll be right back with you order Naruto-kun!"

While Naruto was at the ramen stand he spent a good amount of time talking to both Ayame and Teuchi about what he had done during his four years away and they were quite impressed with what he had accomplished. Naruto realized that time was wasting since he really did want to find Sakura so he bid Ayame and Teuchi farewell and paid his bill.

"Hope we'll see you again soon Naruto!"

"Don't worry old man! I'll be back later for dinner!"

Naruto then spent another half an hour trying to search for Sakura and yet he was unsuccessful once again making him frustrated. "Dammit! I've had no luck finding Sakura-chan. I wonder if she's avoiding me since she doesn't want to know that I'm back or could it just be that she's busy with other things. Whatever it is, I've got to keep looking for her!"

Naruto couldn't help but notice the cold stares and dirty looks as he walked down the street, others whispered under their breathes about the demon being back which made him feel a bit uncomfortable and he decided to head down an alley to avoid any more unwanted attention. "Even after four years away those bastards still hate me? I guess some things never change…" Naruto continued walking down the side streets hoping that being away from the main roads wouldn't detract from him finding Sakura.

**With Sakura**

Sakura had just finished training and she was feeling rather great since it felt good to finally have a chance to stretch her muscles. She decided to head home since it was late enough and her mom wouldn't question her why she was home so early since Tsunade sometimes let her off at this time. She was about to reach her home when she overheard a conversation one of the villagers was having and they mentioned something about a demon. She eavesdropped on the villagers as they continued talking.

"Did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"The demon is back in Konoha. I guess he finally decided to show up again after four years. I was hoping he would have left the village permanently, but then again it might be nice to let out a little built up frustration on him…"

With that remark Sakura stepped out from the shadows and swiftly interrupted the villager's conversation. "Sorry to cut in guys, but you said something about the demon showing up again in the village?"

Both villagers looked at Sakura with interest as the older one spoke up. "What's it to you pinky? You got something planned for him?"

"Not really, I was just curious if any of you have seen him?"

"We haven't seen him, but I heard from someone else that said he was spotted on one of the side streets."

"Thanks! By the way…" Sakura swiftly grabbed both villagers by the scuff of their shirts and gave them a threatening expression as she spoke. "If you two ever talk shit about my teammate like that again I'm going to personally beat the both of you into the ground, got it?" Sakura's expression scared both villagers and they just nodded silently in agreement as Sakura tossed them to the ground and ran off towards the direction where Naruto was last seen.

**With Naruto**

Naruto decided to take a break and let his legs have a break since they were killing him from his endless walking and luckily for him he had found a bench he could rest on. He sat there for a moment trying to think of what to do next.

"If I can't find Sakura around here, perhaps I should go to Hokage Tower and ask Baa-chan if she knows exactly where Sakura-chan is, but if I do that, I'll be stuck for another few hours explaining to Baa-chan what I did for training and I'm not exactly sure Ero-Sennin is done talking to her yet…"

He was too deep in thought to realize that someone was calling out to him and he kept on ignoring them until he finally felt a poking on his shoulder which finally snapped him back to reality. He turned to face whoever was tapping him on the shoulder and he nearly jumped ten feet in the air at who he saw."Sakura-chan,"he yelled out.

Sakura in turn gave Naruto a soft smile before answering. "Yes, it's me Naruto…"

Naruto was quite dumbfounded to say the least. He really couldn't say another word to Sakura right now so he just looked at her, taking in how much she had grown in the last four years, but he held off trying not to eye her too much for he was fearful that she might hit him if he looked at her the wrong way. Sakura herself had to admit how much Naruto had changed in the last four years and he looked quite handsome. _"If only he could get rid of that orange, I bet he'd look much better in a different color."_

Sakura found herself blushing at the thoughts that were going through her head and shook them off as the both of them finally got over their shock of seeing each other for the first time in four years.

"It really is you Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed.

Sakura suddenly felt herself dragged into a hug as Naruto almost squeezed the life out of her, but she rather enjoyed being this close to him. As Naruto kept on hugging her he let a few stray tears escape from his eyes as he spoke. "Sakura-chan, it's been too long since I've last seen you. I really missed you…"

Sakura allowed a few tears to escape her eyes as she buried her head more into his shoulder before answering. "I did to Naruto. I'm glad that you're finally back."

Naruto eased up a little on their hug then he stared at Sakura's face and immediately reached out to caress some of Sakura's hair. "You kept your promise to me…"

"Yes, I did… it was only fair since you also kept up your promise."

"I got to admit it's a good look for you Sakura-chan, it brings out the beauty in you…"

Sakura reddened in embarrassment from Naruto's comment and smiled as she put one of her hands up to his face and gently caressed one of his whiskered cheeks. "Thanks for the complement Naruto and you look great yourself…"

Unsure of what to do next they moved closer to each other until they were about to kiss when a voice called out to both of them.

"Aww! Such a touching reunion, I hope I'm not interrupting anything you lovebirds!"

Naruto and Sakura turned around to see Jiraiya smirking at them and quickly the both of them broke off their embrace as Jiraiya walked up to both of them. "You both didn't have to break off that embrace; it would have been great material for one of my Icha Icha books!"

Jiraiya suddenly found himself face down on the ground as Sakura delivered a chakra enhanced punch to his head."Ero-baka!" she yelled at him.

Naruto could only laugh as Jiraiya slowly got up and rubbed his sore head while Sakura looked on with an angry expression on her face.

"I was only kidding! Anyway, I'm here to get Naruto since Tsunade and I need to talk to you about something."

"What exactly is it about Ero-Sennin?"

"I really don't want to talk about it here since people could be eavesdropping. Let's take it to Hokage Tower."

"All right Ero-Sennin, but can't it wait until later? I finally get to see Sakura-chan once again and you want me to leave her here? Can't she come with us?"

"Not really Naruto, what Tsunade and I want to talk to you about doesn't concern Sakura…"

Naruto mumbled to himself as he tried to think of something to say.

"Well, can I at least say goodbye to her and tell her I'll meet up with her later?"

"I don't see a problem with that."

Naruto turned his attention back towards Sakura who had been silent since she called Jiraiya a baka. "I guess you heard what Ero-Sennin told me right?"

"Yes, I did Naruto and as much as I want to deny Jiraiya-sama taking you away from me, it has to do with shishou and I know how much she hates waiting. We can catch up later at Ichiraku's for some dinner, how does that sound?"

"That sounds great Sakura-chan, but do you mean like a date?"

Sakura just smirked as she answered back. "You could call it that Naruto…"

Naruto wanted to let out a yell of joy since he was going to go on an official date with Sakura, but he held it in for now and he sheepishly starched the back of his head and gave Sakura thumbs up. "I can't wait till then Sakura-chan! I'll see you later!"

Sakura smiled back as Naruto turned around and joined Jiraiya as the both of them began walking towards Hokage Tower while Naruto wondered exactly what both Jiraiya and Tsunade wanted to talk to him about. If Sakura wasn't allowed to come with him then it must have been something very important and it made him worry.


	5. At The Bottom Of Night

"So what exactly are we going to see Baa-chan about Ero-Sennin? You've been really quiet since we left Sakura-chan."

"It's really nothing Naruto… it's just I'm not too sure how you'll take what we want to talk to you about."

"Oh come on Ero-Sennin, you know me! Nothing is going to faze me!"

_"I really wish that was the case Naruto…"_

Jiraiya turned his head away from Naruto so he couldn't see the look of disappointment and fear on his face. He wasn't sure how Naruto would take this, but he was prepared for the worst once Tsunade and he told Naruto about his parents and it also reminded Jiraiya of his little conversation he had with Tsunade earlier in the day.

_**Flashback to earlier today**_

_"Are you out of your mind Jiraiya?"_

_Tsunade was never usually this mad at Jiraiya, but what he had suggested to her while they were discussing Naruto's progress really drove home what they had tried to cover up for the last four years of his life._

_"I know I maybe sound crazy Tsunade, but dammit! Naruto has a right to know who his parents were. We can't keep hiding the truth from him. He's been in the dark too long about it and he even asked me while we were training if I knew anything about his parents and I told him no, I feel really ashamed of having to lie to Minato's only son!"_

_Tsunade wasn't really sure on how to answer Jiraiya back; he made a lot of good points. Naruto had been kept in the dark too long about his parents and now that he was almost turning eighteen, he had the right to know. She sighed in defeat as she answered._

_"I suppose you're right Jiraiya… we need to tell Naruto who his parents were, but like you, I don't know how he'll reaction…"_

_"It will be much worse if we don't tell him… I'll go get him and bring him back here so we can finally tell him the truth."_

_Tsunade watched as Jiraiya hopped out of the back window and once he was gone she slumped down in her chair, taking a drink of her sake while looking at the Fourth Hokage's picture._

_"Minato, Kushina, please give me the strength to make it through this ordeal… I just hope your son won't hate me for keeping this from him."_

_**End Flashback**_

It wasn't long before the both of them were in front of Hokage Tower as Jiraiya did his best to hide the emotions that were swirling within him right now. Naruto on the other hand was excited and immediately run inside while Jiraiya stayed where he was.

"Hey Ero-Sennin, let's get going! We don't want to keep Baa-chan waiting!"

Jiraiya snapped out of his trance like state and softly smiled at Naruto.

"Yeah, let's get inside…"

With each passing step up towards the office Jiraiya could feel his heart start to sink lower and lower wondering just exactly how Naruto would react to this news. The worst he thought Naruto could do was cuss at them and say how much he hated them, but there was always the speculation that he'd just laugh about it and not take it seriously. He just hoped that Naruto would go with the second choice.

Even in the four years since he had grown Naruto was never one for patient and he just opened the door to the office walking right in.

"Naruto, that's not the proper way to go inside the Hokage's office! I thought you knew better!"

Naruto in turn sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry Ero-Sennin, I just got a little carried away I suppose…"

At the sound of the commotion Tsunade turned around in her chair and put on her best fake smile as she greeted Naruto.

"You know gaki, Jiraiya has a point about just walking in, and it's not very polite."

At the sound of Tsunade's voice Naruto couldn't help but let a big grin cross his face as he turned around to face her and without letting her react Naruto crushed her into a hug as he once again let a few tears escape his face.

"Baa-chan… it's been too long. I've missed you."

Tsunade smiled softly as she returned the hug. "I've missed you too gaki, I heard a lot from Jiraiya about what you did in your four years. You'll have to show me just how much you've improved in the last four years."

"Don't worry Baa-chan; I plan on it and not just you, but everyone in the village!"

Tsunade couldn't help but laugh at Naruto's cheerful mood. _"Despite being gone from the village for four years, he's still the same Naruto which is a good thing."_

Eventually Tsunade's good mood turned sour as she eyed Jiraiya closing the office door and making a few hand signs signaling that he had sound proofed the room so no one else could hear their conversation. She gently broke off Naruto's embrace as she looked at him seriously. "I know you've just gotten back and all Naruto, but as Jiraiya told you, we have something very important to talk to you about."

"What exactly is it Baa-chan? Ero-Sennin hasn't said anything about it either… what's the big secret?"

Tsunade sighed as she got up from her seat and turned to look out the window keeping her face hidden from Naruto's view.

"It's not that easy to talk about it… perhaps you would like to go first Jiraiya?"

Jiraiya walked up to Naruto and gently put both of his hands on his shoulders making Naruto wonder what exactly he was doing. Jiraiya hesitated for a moment trying to find the right words to say without letting his emotions get the better of him. "Like Tsunade said Naruto, it's something that's not easy to talk about, but we feel as though you're old enough to know who your parents were…"

Naruto's interest sparked immediately as he spoke up rather excited. "You mean you know something about my parents, Ero-Sennin? What were they like? Were they amazing shinobi like me?"

Jiraiya was about to answer when Tsunade nodded to him, telling him she'd take it from here. "To answer your question Naruto, yes, your parents were quite amazing. We had the chance to know the both of them. They were probably two of the most gifted shinobi I've ever met and Jiraiya even had the privilege of training your father…"

Naruto turned to face Jiraiya who had an emotionless expression on his face. "You trained my father Ero-Sennin? How come you never told me?"

"I didn't think you'd care Naruto, but enough with beating around the bush… yes, I did train your father and he was probably one of the most well respected shinobi in Konoha… your father was none other than the Fourth Hokage himself." Jiraiya closed his eyes and expected the worst from what he just told Naruto, but instead Naruto started laughing at him.

"Ha! Ha! That's a good one Ero-Sennin, but I don't believe that for a moment…"

Tsunade then quietly moved to her desk and pulled out a picture and walked over to Naruto, giving him the picture of the Fourth Hokage. "Jiraiya isn't lying Naruto. The Fourth Hokage really is your father… have you not noticed how much you look like him?"

"I don't know… maybe I'm just lucky to look like him."

"God dammit Naruto, look closer at the picture!" she yelled out.

Naruto was quite surprised by Tsunade's sudden emotional outburst, but he did as she said and took a closer look at the Fourth Hokage's picture. He had only glimpsed a few times at the Fourth's picture and never really paid attention to it, but now that he had a better look at his picture, he really could see the similarities. His long blonde hair and striking bright blue eyes, it was almost as if Naruto was looking at an older version of himself minus the whisker marks and then reality finally hit Naruto.

The tale of how the Fourth Hokage supposedly killed the Kyuubi, but when he was in the academy, he had learned the horrible truth that he had the Kyuubi sealed in him. All the pieces started to fit together, the Fourth Hokage sealing the Kyuubi within a young child, his only child. Naruto started to shake violently as he dropped the picture of the Fourth Hokage without care while Jiraiya and Tsunade watched on.

Naruto remained silent for a few more moments before finally answering back, but in a whisper. "You guys supposedly knew my parents and yet you kept this from me?"

"Yes, we did Naruto, but we had a good reason. If we would have told you any earlier, other villages could have come after you since your father was feared and had many enemies. Your birth was kept a secret from most people and you were given your mother's surname to prevent anyone from suspecting…" answered the Hokage, Tsunade. And before Tsunade had a chance to finish her sentence Naruto interrupted her and said something that shocked her.

"Shut the fuck up! I don't want to hear any more of your bullshit! It's a bunch of fucking lies! … DAHHHHHHH!"

Naruto then pushed Jiraiya out the way as he run towards the window and Tsunade tried to stop him from leaving, but he quickly dodged under her and stood on the ledge of the window. The look on his face almost brought Jiraiya and Tsunade to tears as Naruto himself was crying with anger and betrayal showing through his tears and what he said next really solidified his hate for both of them.

"Don't you ever fucking touch me again, the both of you! I can't believe I trusted you! You're just like everyone else… keeping secrets from me and worst of all… lying to me! I don't ever want to see you again!"

Naruto then jump down from the window and disappeared into the distance leaving both Jiraiya and Tsunade in utter shock while Tsunade herself was bought to tears by what Naruto had said to them. "I can't believe it… he actually said those things to us… the people he trusted the most."

Jiraiya opened his arms and offered Tsunade some comfort which she gladly took as she buried her face into his shoulder and cried as she tried to talk.

"He'll never come back now! He'll hate until the day we die…"

Jiraiya rocked Tsunade back and forth as he tried to calm her down and tried his best to hold back the tears that wanted to fall. "I expected this of him Tsunade, but if I know Naruto he'll forgive us sometime… it may not be now, but in time I'm sure he will…"

**With Naruto**

Naruto still couldn't believe what Jiraiya and Tsunade had just told him, he was supposed to be related to the Fourth Hokage? He just didn't know what to do right now and they had pretty much ruined his mood for any food or even having a date with Sakura. He just couldn't face her like he was now. He thought it would just be best to plaster on his best fake smile and tell Sakura that something came up and he'd have to postpone their date to another day. He approached Ichiraku's and saw Sakura standing there like she had promised.

He quietly approached Sakura and hoped that she wouldn't notice he had been crying. She saw him walking towards her and Sakura instantly ran up to Naruto smiling at him. "Naruto, it took you long enough to get here. Did shishou get to tell you what she wanted?"

Naruto remained silent for a few moments before answering back. "Yeah, she did, but listen Sakura… something else came up and I'm afraid we'll have to postpone our date for a few days…"

Sakura looked puzzled at Naruto as she answered back. "But why Naruto, you were so excited earlier…" she started out saying.

Naruto turned his head away from Sakura as he unexpectedly turned and ran away from Sakura leaving her to question what was wrong with him. "Why did he run away for?"

Sakura began to wonder why Naruto had run away from her. Was it something to with what he was talked to Tsunade about? She wasn't sure, but she could tell just from the way Naruto was acting that something was wrong with him because usually he'd call her Sakura-chan, but he didn't this time. Sakura thought about going to Hokage Tower and questioning Tsunade about what had made Naruto so upset, but right now he needed someone and that someone was going to be her.

**Thirty Minutes Later**

Naruto had spent the last thirty minutes trying his best to not be caught by any of his friends and he thought he did a good job since he figured no one would look for up here on top of Hokage Monument. He plopped down on top of the Fourth's head and finally let his tears flow free. He still couldn't believe that he was related to the Fourth Hokage and looked at his face as he yelled at it, as if it could hear him.

"How in the hell am I supposed to be related to you, let alone your son? What type of father would seal one of the most powerful bijuu into their own child? WHY? WHY? ANSWER ME GODDAMN!"

There was no answer and Naruto in a fit of rage drove his fist into the rock breaking some of it and blooding his hand at the same time from the impact. He didn't care that his hand was bloody as he continued hitting his hand into the rock hoping that it would relieve some of his pain, but it didn't and eventually it became too much for him so he curled up into a ball and began crying even harder hoping that somehow this was all a bad dream and it would all be over. He tried closing his eyes hoping that maybe getting some sleep would help him, but that was interrupted as he heard a very familiar gasp.

"Naruto! A voice exclaimed.

Naruto turned his head slightly to see the one person he had hoped to avoid, Sakura. She immediately ran over to him and tried to help him up, but he resisted.

"Just go away Sakura… I don't want you to see me like this…"

Naruto turned his head away from Sakura in hopes that she hadn't seen him crying and he also tried to hide his blooded up hand, but the evidence was clear. The impact in the stone was visible and the bloody streak going down his hand was still fresh. Immediately Sakura went into medic-ninja mode as she gently grabbed Naruto's bloodied hand and began healing it, but only to be stopped by Naruto.

"Naruto let me help you! I was just about to heal your hand."

"I don't need your help Sakura… the Kyuubi can take care of it, just go away and leave me alone!"

Sakura was utterly shocked by Naruto's words. Usually he'd never be this angry, let alone at her and she was concerned for him. "Please Naruto… tell me what's wrong. I can help you!"

"Why would you want to help me Sakura? You never cared about me in the past, so what makes this any different now?"

Sakura wanted to punch Naruto for that statement, but his words were somewhat true since in the past Sakura had ignored him in favor of Sasuke, but now that she was older, Sakura had seen the error of her ways and she had vowed to herself to start treating Naruto better and it began now. "I'm concerned for you Naruto… I've never seen you act like this before… it's so not like you…" Eventually Sakura began to shed tears of her own and dropped to her knees embracing Naruto in a tight hug as she spoke. "Please Naruto… don't hide things from me. I'm here as a friend, will you tell me what happened."

Naruto was rather shocked by Sakura's sudden outburst and it hurt him to see her cry like this. He knew her words were genuine and she was concerned for him. He wanted to be comforted and who else better than his lifelong crush? He gently raised her face so that they were face to face and he let a few more tears escape his eyes as he spoke. "I'm sorry Sakura-chan… I didn't mean to make you cry… it's just what Baa-chan and Ero-Sennin told me was shocking and I really couldn't believe it at first…"

"What exactly did they say to you?"

"Well…"

Naruto went on to explain to Sakura that he was related to the Fourth Hokage and Sakura herself was quite shocked to say the least.

"My god Naruto… you've been through so much and yet I feel terrible…"

"What do you mean Sakura-chan?"

Sakura let a few more tears escape her face before she answered. "It's just… I found out that you were the jinchurriki of the nine tails a few years ago and it made me feel horrible about what I did to you when we were younger… I don't deserve to have you as a friend!"

Sakura turned her head in shame as she began crying, but she felt herself embraced in a tighter hug as Naruto just softly smiled at her. "Sakura-chan… I don't blame you for what you've done when we were younger… you were a kid and didn't know any better and like you said, you've seen the error of your ways."

Sakura didn't know what to say to Naruto and all she could do was bury her head into his shoulder and whisper thank you over and over again while Naruto just smiled and continued to hug her until they realized it was getting dark. They said their goodbyes to each other and Sakura was about to leave when she saw that Naruto hadn't moved from his spot. "What's wrong Naruto?"

"It's nothing Sakura-chan… I'll get up in a minute and head back to my apartment." And yet Naruto still felt so empty. Despite comforting Sakura and the same from her, he was still feeling an air of loneliness since he had to go back to his apartment with no one. He didn't say anything as he got up and to Sakura's surprise buried his head into her shoulder as he cried. "Please Sakura-chan… I don't want to be alone tonight, stay with me for tonight please?"

Sakura wasn't too sure how to respond to Naruto's request. She wanted to go home to her nice warm bed, but at the same time she didn't want to leave Naruto broken and make it worse by saying no. She gently rubbed his back as she responded. "Sure Naruto, I'll stay with you tonight…"

Naruto unburied his face from Sakura's shoulder and gave her a soft smile as Sakura offered him her hand which he gladly took as the both of them walked towards his apartment. As they continued walking Sakura couldn't help but smile as she felt glad about being able to comfort Naruto for once instead of him comforting her and she hoped this wouldn't be the only time either.


	6. More Than Just Friends

Naruto and Sakura finally made it to his apartment and Sakura was glad that they got there since she couldn't stand the sight of how many people had given them those glares as they walked back to Naruto's apartment. It made Sakura sick since she experienced first-hand what exactly Naruto had to go through as the villagers even threw a few insults their way and she wanted to beat them down for that, but Sakura held back since she had more important things to worry about, namely Naruto who seemed out of it. "Hey Naruto we're finally here."

Naruto seemed to snap out of his daze as he softly smiled at Sakura. "Huh? Oh, sorry Sakura-chan, I was just thinking about something… let me get the key to my apartment."

Naruto fumbled around in his pockets for a few moments before he finally fished the said key and opened up his apartment. Before entering he switched on his light switch and was greeted by four years' worth of not cleaning and dust and the sudden exposure made him cough. Sakura just peered into his apartment while he sheepishly scratched the back of his head."Eh, eh, eh, I guess I forgot to clean my apartment before I came back…"

"Don't worry about it Naruto. You had an excuse, but I never imagined it would have gotten this bad."

"I suppose I better clean up before I invite you in…"

"I can help…"

"No, no Sakura-chan, I don't expect you to help me. I've already got all the help I need right here!" Naruto then made his hand gesture for the kage bushin and in a matter of seconds ten other clones appeared next to the original Naruto as he spoke up to each of them. "All right guys! Let's get to work cleaning this place up!"

"Yes, sir!" they chorused. The clones went to work while Sakura watched as the clones went about cleaning up his apartment, getting rid of non-essential junk and throwing away trash that Naruto had forgotten to get rid of before he left on his trip. It wasn't very long before the clones had done their job and Naruto's apartment was clean, for now. Naruto returned his attention to Sakura who rested herself against the railing while the clones worked.

"That was pretty fast Naruto. I expected it to take you a little bit longer, but I guess kage bushin does come in handy for a lot of things."

"They sure do Sakura-chan and now that it's clean, won't you come in?"

"I'd like that Naruto." Sakura followed Naruto into his apartment and took off her boots before entering since it was the civil thing to do and she was quite impressed with the work the clones did. Naruto's apartment looked much cleaner, but still it couldn't hide the fact that he was living in a rundown one, one that the landlord was probably reluctant to give him. Sakura stood in Naruto's living room for a moment before he asked her to join him in his kitchen which was much better, but not by a lot. Sakura took a seat in the opposite chair as Naruto began to boil some water for tea.

"I hope you don't mind plain old tea Sakura-chan, it's the only thing I've got since I haven't been shopping in a while."

"I don't mind Naruto…"

Naruto was about to say something else when the kettle went off. He returned a few moments later with two cups of tea in crappy looking mugs, but Sakura wasn't complaining as the tea tasted surprisingly good. They remained silent for a few minutes unsure of what to say to each other until Sakura decided to break the silence.

"So Naruto… I know it's been a rough day for you and all, but you never did get a chance to tell me how you're training went…"

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to explain…" Naruto went into great detail on what he did in his four years away from Konoha and it made Sakura gasp at what he had to go through and here she thought her training was hard. According to what Naruto said, Jiraiya put him through the ringer, making him do all sorts of things he never imagined he could pull off, but in the end it was all worth it since he was much stronger now and prepared for what was ahead.

"I don't know what to say Naruto… you're training sounds like it was hell. I thought shishou was bad on me, but the way you made it sound, my training was a walk in the park."

"What about you're training Sakura-chan? It's only fair that you explain to me what you did in these four years too."

Sakura smiled as she talked about her experiences from the last four years and how Tsunade trained her in the art of healing and how she was put on different missions over the years to help her improve her medic-ninja skills and it made Sakura feel better about herself since it made her feel like she was less of a burden to people and of course Naruto did his best to comfort Sakura by saying she never was a burden to which she blushed a little and smiled. They continued to talk about their experiences over the last four years until Naruto peered at his kitchen clock. "Holy crap it's almost midnight! We need to get to bed I assume."

"That sounds like a good idea to me Naruto, but before we go to bed… I know it's still a touchy subject, but do you plan on seeing shishou tomorrow?"

Naruto dropped dead silent and he didn't bother to answer Sakura's question and proceeded to walk towards his bedroom, but felt himself being stopped by Sakura.

"Naruto… please you have to go back and talk to shishou… I'm sure she had her reasons for not telling you about your parents."

He wasn't sure of what to say to Sakura. He didn't want to see Tsunade right away, but Sakura had a point. He could only avoid her for so long before he had to go back. Tears started to well up in his eyes as he turned to face Sakura. "Honestly Sakura-chan I don't know. What Baa-chan and Ero-Sennin did to me was awful… I mean… I thought I could trust them but… but they ended up betraying my trust and I trusted them the most!"

Naruto felt himself wanting to cry once again and he held back his tears since he didn't want to breakdown in front of Sakura once again, but he found himself being embraced by Sakura as she gently rocked him back and forth.

"It's okay Naruto… you don't always have to be strong in front of me. Let it out…"

Naruto softly smiled before he buried his head into Sakura's shoulder and cried once again while she continued to comfort him the best she could. "I may not know what you're going through Naruto, but I'm sure shishou and Jiraiya-sama are feeling the same way you are. They hated lying to you and they're suffering for it, but if I know you, you won't stay mad at them forever… I know I shouldn't ask this of you so sooner, but please for my sake, let shishou and Jiraiya-sama explain themselves. You owe them that much…"

"I don't know Sakura-chan, how can I trust them once again when they betrayed it?"

"I know they did Naruto, but don't you want to know who your parents were and what they were like?"

Naruto really couldn't argue with Sakura there. He had always thought of himself as an orphan and never thought he had parents, but now that Jiraiya and Tsunade had revealed that he did indeed have parents. He was curious to know who they were. He unburied his face from Sakura's shoulder and he gave her a soft smile. "I suppose you're right Sakura-chan, but I just hope Ero-Sennin and Baa-chan don't hold it against me for running off like I did…"

"I'm sure they won't Naruto."

Naruto and Sakura broke off their embrace as the both of them settled down for the night, Sakura taking the couch even though Naruto had insisted on her sleeping in his bed while he took the couch, but Sakura insisted that she was used to sleeping on the couch since she had done it numerous times while training with Tsunade. The both of them fell into a deep sleep until Sakura herself was woken up by strange noises a few hours later.

"Huh? What's that noise?" Sakura went to investigate the noises that seemed to be coming from Naruto's room. She gently opened Naruto's door and saw that he was restlessly moving around back and forth on his bed shouting out things and it seemed as though it had to do with him getting beaten up by the villagers from what Sakura could make out. He suddenly cried out as he turned over hastily in his bed.

"No! I didn't mean to!"

Sakura was bought nearly bought to tears by Naruto's actions. _"Naruto… even in your dreams you can't get away from what the villagers did to you… I'll try to help you in some way."_

Sakura carefully approached Naruto's bed and sat down at the edge of the bed and bit her lip thinking her idea was stupid, but she decided to go through with it so she laid down next to Naruto's and carefully wrapped her arms around his frame and used some of her chakra enhanced strength to stop him from thrashing about. It seemed to work as Naruto's slowly stopped and fell back into a peaceful sleep and Sakura moved in closer to him and smiled knowing that she had once again helped Naruto.

**The Next Morning**

Naruto's slowly woke up and felt something wrapped around him turnig to his side to see Sakura right next to him. He immediately started to panic since he didn't know what to do; Sakura had never been this close to him. He gently removed her hands from around him as he quietly moved from his bed only to not watch where he was going and hit the floor with a thud, making Sakura wake up.

"Uh, Naruto are you finally awake?" she asked.

Naruto started to sweat bullets as he tried to think of something to say. "Uh… yeah I am! I just had to use the bathroom and didn't realize you were next to me in bed… was the couch uncomfortable or something?"

"Not really… I woke up last night hearing some noises and it turned out to be you talking in your sleep… tell me Naruto, does this happen often?"

Naruto was quite embarrassed that Sakura had caught him talking to himself at night, but not as much as finding her in bed with him. "Well, uh… it's not normal… I usually just do it when I'm not feeling good that's all! You don't have to worry Sakura-chan!"

He tried flashing Sakura his thumbs up and smile, but it wasn't working as Sakura got serious. "Don't lie to me Naruto… I came in here and saw you thrashing about. It's something you experience all the time isn't it?"

Naruto knew he couldn't lie to Sakura and held his head down in defeat as he answered back. "Yes, it is Sakura-chan, but it's usually something I keep to myself… I guess I feel embarrassed that you saw me like that."

"Don't feel embarrassed Naruto…" Sakura then got up from Naruto's bed and embraced him in a hug once again. "It may be perfectly normal for you, but the way you kept going on made me almost want to cry. That's why you found me in your bed this morning. I was just trying to comfort you again…"

Naruto just smiled as he answered back. "You've already comforted me more than I can count in the last twenty hours Sakura-chan. You don't always have to comfort me in every way…"

"You have a point Naruto, but I felt after all that I've put you through in the past, it's the least I can do to make it up to you."

"Sakura…" Naruto cupped Sakura's face so they were face to face and he softly smiled at her as he stroked her messy long pink hair. "You shouldn't dwell on the past Sakura… you're a better person now and I'm happy that you're here for me. I can't thank you enough."

Sakura in turn smiled as she buried her head into the crook of Naruto's neck and happy cried. They remained like that for few more minutes until Sakura realized that she needed to get home so her mother wouldn't question her about where she was. Naruto once again thanked Sakura for staying with him for the night and she took off towards her house hoping that her mother wouldn't be mad with her. Naruto on the other hand had other matters to attend to as he looked out towards Hokage Tower. "I just wonder what Ero-Sennin and Baa-chan have to say about my parents."

**With Sakura**

It had only been a matter of minutes since Sakura had left Naruto's apartment and she hoped that her mother wasn't awake yet so she could sneak into her house with her knowing, but part of Sakura already knew she would have to explain herself since she was still wearing her clothes from yesterday. She felt rather nervous as she carefully opened the door to her home. Sakura quietly moved across her living room to where her room was and opened the door to her room when she heard a voice from behind her.

"Sakura where have you been?" the person behind her questioned.

Sakura turned around to see her mother standing there with a not to happy looking on her face. "Mom I can explain…"

"I know you're eighteen and all Sakura, but being out until this morning is uncalled for, especially for you."

"Please let me explain Mom… I just want to clean up first if you don't mind."

Sakura's mother was by no means cruel and her daughter was a mess, wearing the same clothes she had on from yesterday and her long pink hair a mess. She smiled softly as she answered back. "Of course dear, but after you clean up, you owe me an explanation."

Sakura smiled back at her mother as she went into her room and proceeded to clean up throwing her uniform from yesterday in the wash. After that she took a shower letting the warm water ease her tired muscles and once she was done combing her hair, she put on her civilian clothes since Sakura was sure there would be no missions today. It had been almost forty-five minutes since she went to clean up and she was surprised that her mother hadn't hounded her about hurrying up, but then again her mother knew she wasn't going anywhere.

Sakura came out of her room and saw that her mother was sitting on the couch waiting patiently for her daughter to appear and once she heard the door to Sakura's room open up she smiled and patted the seat next to her. Sakura knew what was coming next as she took a seat next to her mother. "Before I start mother, I'd just like to thank you for letting me get dressed first."

"Don't mention it Sakura and now that you're here, please explain to me where you were last night."

Sakura felt like lying to her mother and saying that she was over at Ino's for the night, but she probably wouldn't believe her since she had not packed anything for the night. She took in a deep breath as she spoke up.

"I was helping a teammate last night mother…"

"What do you mean helping out a teammate Sakura?"

"It wasn't Sasuke in case you're wondering mother… I was helping out Naruto with something. You see he just got back yesterday and before we could even talk to each other, he was pulled away by Jiraiya-sama to have a talk with shishou and what they talked to him about hurt him not just physical, but emotionally too. I stayed at his house last night to provide him with some comfort, he asked me to spend the night with him. I really didn't want to turn him down and break him even more, so I agreed."

Sakura's mother didn't answer at first, but then she answered back and it wasn't the answer Sakura was expecting. "You mean that demon? Why would you want to stay with him last night, let alone talk to him when you know what destruction he caused almost seventeen years ago?"

Sakura clinched her fists in anger as she answered back. "Don't call him that! I'm tired of everyone calling him a demon. He's not a demon goddamn! He's just a normal human being like all of us that…"

Sakura couldn't finish her sentence since she found herself shedding tears as the guilt of what she had done to Naruto caught up to her once again. Her mother didn't say anything as Sakura continued talking. "It's not fair to him… the burden he's forced to carry. He wasn't given any choice when he was younger… he was forced to carry it all his life and I feel horrible because I contributed to his pain in some way…"

Sakura continued to cry and suddenly she felt herself being embraced by her mother much to her surprise and looked to see that her mother was smiling at her."I sorry for what I said earlier Sakura… I never knew how much Naruto meant to you."

Sakura's cheeks reddened slightly as she answered back. "What exactly are you saying mother?"

"You care deeply for Naruto… in fact I would go as far to say that you're in love with him."

Sakura's face turned an even deeper crimson red as her mother continued talking. "Your words to me earlier proved how much you care for him… I may not like him myself, but I can't allow myself to get between the person my daughter loves. In fact I think you should bring him over sometime so I can meet my future son in law."

"Mother, it's nothing like that!"

Sakura's mother just laughed before answering back. "I know Sakura, I was only kidding, but when that time comes, when the both of you are comfortable enough to admit your feelings to each other, you'll make each other happy."

**With Naruto**

Naruto approached the doors leading to Hokage Tower and he felt his heart sting since what happened yesterday was still fresh on his mind, but he had promised Sakura he would give Jiraiya and Tsunade a chance to explain to him who exactly his parents were and he just hoped he could keep his cool this time around. He let out a deep breath he didn't know he was holding in as he opened up the doors to the tower and proceeded up towards the office where Tsunade would be waiting.


	7. The Family He Never Knew

As Naruto made his way up to the Hokage's office he was still having second thoughts about seeing Tsunade only a day after what had transpired, still he promised Sakura that he would listen to what she had to say and he wasn't one for breaking his promises so easily. Before he knew it, Naruto was in front of the door to the Hokage's office, he was about to knock when his doubts got the better of him and took a step back.

_"Dammit! I can't do it… I know I promised Sakura-chan I'd listen to what Baa-chan had to say, but I just can't right now… no! I'm going to settle things between us! I don't want to drive a deeper wedge into our relationship."_ Naruto gathered his courage and lightly knocked on the door.

Tsunade on the other hand wasn't exactly in the best of moods this morning despite Jiraiya doing his best to comfort her about what happened yesterday. Jiraiya himself had yet to show up at the office and Tsunade gathered that he had overslept like usual or was doing his usual research, but then again after what Naruto had said to the both of them she was sure he wasn't in the mood for that just yet, then again he could be off searching for Naruto trying to make things better. Tsunade herself vowed that after she was done at the office today, Naruto ignoring her or not, she'd go to his apartment and personally apologize to him.

She was about to take a hit of her sake to kept her in at least a somber mood when there was a knock on the door. Tsunade quickly put the sake back in her desk and answered. "Whoever it is, go ahead and come in…"

Tsunade plastered on her best smile since she thought it would be one of the village elders or a member of ANBU coming in to give her their daily report, but her jaw nearly fell to the floor when she saw who it was. Naruto slowly opened the door and carefully closed it behind him remaining silent, unsure of what to say to Tsunade and she was the same. They both remained like that before Naruto decided to break the silence between them. "Baa-chan… I came here today because I…"

Naruto tried to finish his sentence, but it was quite hard for him in part due to his emotions getting the better of him. He could clearly see that Tsunade had suffered in her own way since her eyes had dark circles under them and he could clearly smell alcohol in the room too. He didn't hesitate as he walked over to the desk and to Tsunade's surprise embraced her in a hug and let his tears flow freely and it someone allowed him to finally finish his sentence.

"I'm sorry Baa-chan! Those words I said… it was wrong of me, I feel horrible because I said them to you and Ero-Sennin." Naruto choked up a bit and buried his head into Tsunade's shoulder as she in turn returned his hug cradling him like any good mother would have done as she shed tears of her own.

"It's okay Naruto… I know you didn't mean it and I feel horrible too since I've hidden things from you, like who your parents were. You had a right to act like you did yesterday and I can only thank Kami for you coming back here today. Yet, how can you forgive me so easily for what happened yesterday?"

Naruto unburied his head from Tsunade's shoulder giving her a soft smile and wiped a few tears from his eyes. "You know me Baa-chan… I don't hold anything against people, especially those who are precious to me."

Tsunade was just about to say something when they heard someone speak up from behind them. "Well, now! Isn't this a touching reunion…?"

Naruto and Tsunade immediately turned around to see a familiar white haired man smiling at the both of them as he jumped in the Hokage's office and took up position near the wall.

"Ero-Sennin," Naruto exclaimed. Naruto broke off the hug from Tsunade and ran over to where Jiraiya was standing and instead of giving him a smile, he held his head down in shame.

"Hey now… what's wrong Naruto? I thought you were in a good mood?"

"I was, but you're probably still mad at me for what I did to yesterday right Ero-Sennin?"

Jiraiya didn't answer back as he instead affectionately ruffled Naruto's hair and smiled at him. "Now why would I be mad at you Naruto? I expected you to react that way and I'm just glad you didn't react in a worse way than you did."

"You surprised me thought Ero-Sennin."

"What do you mean Naruto?"

"I thought for sure you'd take it as hard as Baa-chan did…"

"Well, we all have our own ways of dealing with things Naruto and I did take it hard, but I looked on the bright side and knew you'd eventually come around and I wasn't expecting you this soon, then again maybe your little girlfriend convinced you otherwise?"

Naruto turned a bright shade of red and tried to hide it as he answered Jiraiya back in a harsh tone. "What the hell Ero-Sennin? Don't you have anything better to do than spy on me and see what I'm doing?"

Jiraiya burst out laughing until Tsunade got up from her seat and promptly clocked him over the head. He rubbed his sore forehead for a second before answering back. "I wasn't spying on you Naruto, in fact I was coming to see you so I could apologize for what I did, but Sakura was there and I decided to lay low until she left and she never did. I've got to say, she's quite the person for staying with you last night and comforting you… _I wish I could have gotten that from Tsunade years ago."_

"What was that last sentence Jiraiya no baka?"

Jiraiya started sweating a little panicked as he tried to find the right words to cover up what he just said. "Err… it was nothing Tsunade!"

"Whatever Jiraiya, but I think it's time we stop delaying things and tell Naruto about his parents."

"I suppose you're right Tsunade, but it's best if we sound proof your office so no one passing by can hear our little conversation."

"Good idea Jiraiya…" Tsunade was about to cast the sound proof justu when Naruto interjected.

"Hold up a second Baa-chan, Ero-Sennin…"

"What is it Naruto?"

"Well, I know the both of you won't approve, but there's someone else that I think should hear about my parents."

Jiraiya and Tsunade knew exactly who Naruto was talking about and they both eyed each other for a second since this was very secretive information they were about to tell him and no one else was supposed to hear about this.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but you're the only one we're going to tell this too."

"Ah! Come on Baa-chan! Even if you tell me about my parents, I'm just going to tell Sakura-chan anyway once we're done here."

"I figured as much Naruto, but tell me, why would you want Sakura here as well to hear about your parents?"

"Because…" Naruto blushed a shade of red once again before answering. "I kind of consider Sakura-chan like family already."

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt, but we don't want you talking to anyone else about this Naruto until the time is right."

"Don't worry Baa-chan, I promise! I'm not going to tell anyone else and if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get Sakura-chan, I'll be back!"

Jiraiya and Tsunade could only watch as Naruto jumped out of the window and onto the streets below as he took off towards Sakura's house.

**With Sakura**

Sakura laid on her bed deep in thought about what happened last night and earlier this morning while her conversation with her mother made her think that much harder about what she felt for Naruto. _"It's quite obvious from the way that you talk about Naruto that you care for him deeply, I would go as far to say that you're in love with him."_ "Is it true? I am really in love with Naruto?"

She had felt something for him that night he had comforted her on the bench after what Sasuke had said to her and in the four years he was gone, it grew into something more. Yet Sakura was still confused by her feelings and yet last night had changed things between them. She had actually slept in the same bed with Naruto and comforted him without even hitting him. No, it couldn't be love… she just felt terrible for him and wanted to right the wrongs of what happened in the past, but nevertheless she wanted more.

Suddenly there was a knock on Sakura's door breaking her from thoughts as the door opened to reveal Sakura's mother who smiled at her. "Sorry to interrupt you honey, but your teammate Naruto is at the front door."

"Naruto, what's he doing here? I thought he was supposed to talk to shishou? Maybe he couldn't do it…" Sakura got up from her bed and walked down from her room towards the front door where Naruto was waiting and he seemed to be in a good mood smiling at Sakura and she did the same. "Naruto, what brings you to my home this morning? I thought you were talking to shishou?"

"I am, but it's just I want you to come with me and hear what they have to say."

Sakura was about to question Naruto, but she figured it wasn't worth it since she was kind of bored at home and wanted something to do. "Sure Naruto, I'm come with you. Let me just grab my sandals."

A few moments later both Naruto and Sakura walked back towards Hokage tower as Naruto informed Sakura of what happened between him, Tsunade, and Jiraiya. Sakura was quite glad that he had worked things out between them and even more surprised by how fast he had forgiven them, but then again she knew he wouldn't hold things against those he cared for. Eventually they reached the office where Tsunade proceeded to inform Sakura why she was there

"Now Sakura, originally you weren't involved in this, but Naruto insisted that you be allowed to hear about his parents."

"His parents," Sakura questioned.

Tsunade walked back to her desk and took a seat before flashing a few hand signs sound proofing the room as she continued. "Yes, Naruto's parents, I know most your generation believed that Naruto was an orphan and his parents didn't care for him, but that's not the case."

"Just skip the bullshit Baa-chan and get right to the good stuff, please?"

"Naruto!"

Tsunade just smiled as she turned her attention to Jiraiya who had remained silent up until this point and he nodded as he understood what Tsunade wanted him to say.

"I know you're eager to hear about your parents Naruto, but it is better if we explain from the beginning how your parents met and this is going to take a little time, so it's best if you have a seat on the couch."

Naruto and Sakura just nodded as they took a seat on the couch and Jiraiya continued. "To be honest though, I never did ask your parents that much about their past, but I suppose I could start with what your mother told me about meeting your father for the first time…"

"My mother… what exactly was her name Ero-Sennin?"

"Your mother's name was Kushina Uzumaki and she was a refugee from the whirlpool village that was forced to come here after the fall of the Whirlpool village. I'm not exactly sure why she was forced to come here, but I suppose Konoha was the only village that was willing to allow refugees. Anyway, your mother was probably one of the strongest shinobi I've ever known and one of the most beautiful too. Her long red hair was probably the most striking feature and what's funny is that she was made fun of for it."

"Mom was made fun of because of her hair? That's quite funny if you ask me."

"Not according to your mother Naruto, in fact she put more boys in the hospital than I can count because of that and she quickly earned the nickname _The Bloody Habanero_. Of course the teasing didn't stop there since her face was also rounded and couple that with her red hair, she was called a tomato. Your mother didn't stand for that and vowed to become Hokage so everyone wouldn't make fun of her."

"That sounds so much like why I want to become Hokage…"

Jiraiya smiled as he walked over to Naruto and patted him on the shoulder. "I can see where you got your attitude from; you're so much like your mother in a way. Your father also had the same idea and this didn't exactly sit well with your mother and she thought of your father as annoying until one particular event."

"What would that be Ero-Sennin?"

"I'm getting to that Naruto."

"Oh sorry…"

"As I was saying, your mother was kidnapped one day by Cloud-ninja who intended to use her for her special chakra. Knowing that someone would be after her, Kushina pulled thin strands of her red hair out and dropped it to the ground hoping someone would catch it and follow it. Your father noticed the red hair on the ground and followed it and eventually it lead him to Kushina and after a brief battle your father was able to subdue them and helped your mother home, but not before complementing her red hair and how beautiful it was and you can probably guess what happened from there."

"Wow… this is all so deep. I… I don't know what to say."

Tsunade who had let Jiraiya talk this entire time got up from her seat and walked over to where Naruto was and gently squeezed his shoulder. "I didn't expect you to say much Naruto, I know it's all so much to take in and we'd explain who your father is, but you've probably already heard enough about him in the academy right?"

Naruto just nodded his head and sadly smiled. "Yeah we did learn a lot about him at the academy and I know he's responsible for sealing the Kyuubi in me, but what kind of parents would do this to they're only child? Having his father seal the Kyuubi within him and his mother abandoning him or leaving him to suffer because of what he is and she's ashamed of giving birth to him right?"

Naruto felt tears starting to well up in his eyes once again and he wanted to cry once again, but he refused to as he turned his head away in shame. It was then he felt someone embrace him in a hug and looked to see that it was Sakura who softly smiled at him as she spoke for the first time since they got here.

"Naruto you shouldn't think that way about your parents. I'm sure they had a good reason for what they did."

Tsunade bent down and placed one of her hands on Naruto's right arm as she added to Sakura's words. "Sakura has a point Naruto. Minato and Kushina would have never abandoned you like that. It's just you were born at the wrong time when the Kyuubi attacked the village and your father had no other choice, but to seal the Kyuubi in you. He didn't want any other child to suffer the same fate as you and he knew you wouldn't abuse the Kyuubi's power. That holds true Naruto… you haven't once abused the Kyuubi's power and it's made you into a better person. I'm glad that I got to know you Naruto. You've got the best of both your mother and father."

Jiraiya stepped forward and added in his own words too. "Tsunade pretty much took the words right out of my mouth Naruto, but I'm also glad that I know Minato's son, you're so much like him and I think you'll become an even greater Hokage then he was."

Naruto wiped the stray tears from his eyes, but they kept coming as he dragged everyone in the room into a hug and squeezed them. "Thanks everyone, your words mean a lot and you're right too. My parents wouldn't have done this to me if they wouldn't have trusted me. They entrusted me with a huge responsibility and I'm glad that they did because if they didn't, I don't think I'd ever meet any of you. You're the family I've never had."

Naruto let go of everyone a few moments later and they talked a little more about Naruto's parents and he asked if Jiraiya and Tsunade ever knew what happened to his mother. The both of them held their heads down in shame as Jiraiya was the one to answer. "We're not too sure, but it's safe to say that your mother died shortly after giving birth to you with all the stress that was going on…"

Naruto fell silent as he lowered his head and Sakura did her best to comfort him which made Tsunade smile and laugh a little which caught the attention of both.

"What's so funny shishou?"

"It's nothing Sakura… it's just you both remind me a lot of Minato and Kushina."

"What do you mean Baa-chan?"

Tsunade smirked as she answered back. "You could say that I'm looking at an exact mirror image of them. Kushina use to do the same for Minato when he was stressed out as Hokage and Sakura, I've never told you this, but you remind me so much of Kushina. You both have uniquely colored hair and you're very opinionated and strong and you both deeply love the one closest to you."

Sakura blushed a shade of red and tried to hide it which in turn made Tsunade laugh while Jiraiya added in his two cents. "It's quite true Sakura, if you dyed your hair red and had blue eyes, you'd look exactly like Kushina expect for the hair length since she had longer hair."

Both Naruto and Sakura blushed red as Tsunade and Jiraiya kept teasing them for a few minutes until Tsunade decided to don a serious look on her face which made the others wonder what was going on. "If we're done with the teasing I'd like to move onto something more pressing…"

"What could possibly be that pressing Baa-chan?" Naruto and Sakura both got up from the couch and walked over where Tsunade was standing as she dropped the sound proof justu.

"The training you did for the last four years wasn't just to help you get stronger, it was also meant as a means to prepare you for something much bigger."

"Something bigger, what are you talking about shishou?"

"It involves something you've faced in the past, in particular a former friend of ours and a man you've faced on many occasions."

"You don't mean…" Naruto and Sakura's eyes widened in shock when Tsunade mentioned the name.


	8. Confessions

"Orochimaru, No way… I thought we heard the last of him four years ago?"

"I wish I could say it was the last of him Naruto, but he seems to have resurfaced in the last year or so…" Tsunade looked towards Jiraiya who just nodded and stepped forward, taking over from Tsunade's speech.

"While I've been training you Naruto, I've been keeping a close eye on Orochimaru and his whereabouts. Just recently before we came back to Konoha, one of my spies that had infiltrated Orochimaru's hideout was killed, but not before delivering me a message on what he's been doing."

"So what exactly has he been up to Jiraiya-sama?" Sakura asked.

"Well, I'd explain what he's up too, but it seems as though we were waiting on two other people to show up before we started."

"Who exactly are we waiting for now?"

Tsunade cracked a smile before answering back. "You'll see Naruto…"

A few moments passed and still there was no sign of whoever they were waiting for and Naruto started to get impatient wanting to find out what that snake in the grass was doing. He was about to speak up to Tsunade when there was a soft knock on the door.

"Come in!" Tsunade commanded.

Naruto turned his attention to the door as it opened revealing two members of ANBU who still had their masks on. They ignored Naruto and Sakura for the moment as the older of the two spoke to Tsunade. "Sorry we're late Hokage-sama, but you see we had to help an old lady across the road and then…"

Naruto instantly recognized that excuse anywhere and pointed an accusatory finger at the ANBU member. "Dammit Kakashi-sensei, you're always using that excuse!"

Kakashi knowing that he couldn't hide his identity anymore from Naruto lifted up his mask and gave him a smile. "Naruto… it's been quite a while since we've last seen each other hasn't it?"

Naruto forgetting about Kakashi's excuse walked up to his sensei and to his surprise hugged him while returning the smile. "Yes, it's been forever Kakashi-sensei… it's great to see you again. How have you been?"

"I've been doing great and as you can see I've gone back to being a member of ANBU."

Naruto and Kakashi laughed and talked to each other about what they had been doing for the last four years while Tsunade, Jiraiya, Sakura and the other masked ANBU member remained silent and let them catch up. As they talked Naruto briefly looked at Jiraiya and knew they were pressed for time, so he condensed his talk and just gave tidbits to Kakashi on what he had done in the last four years. Kakashi just nodded and ruffled Naruto's hair as he spoke up.

"That's quite impressive what you've accomplished in the last four years Naruto and I bet a certain other member of team seven would be impressed too."

Naruto's eyes widened when Kakashi mentioned that and he started to look around the room. "You mean teme is here! Where is he? I want to see the expression on his face when I tell him!"

"Actually dobe I've heard every single word you've said…" said the masked ANBU member.

Naruto turned his attention to the other masked ANBU member and stepped in front of him. "Sasuke, No way," Naruto exclaimed.

The masked ANBU removed his mask and there staring back at Naruto with onyx eyes was none other than the other member of team seven, Sasuke. Everyone in the room tensed up for a moment as they figured Naruto might hit Sasuke for what he did four years ago, but to their shock he extended out his hand and Sasuke hesitated at first, but returned the handshake as they both smiled at each other.

"It's good to see you again teme," Naruto said.

"The same to you dobe and I suggest we leave the introductions for later, right now Tsunade-sama has some important news to tell us right?" stated Sasuke.

"Yes, I do Sasuke, but I won't be the one telling you about this mission you're going on…" Tsunade started saying.

"A mission", asked Naruto?

"Well, what did you expect dobe? For us just to sit around the Hokage's office and share tales of what happened in the last four years?"

"Oh, ha, ha Sasuke… I forgot to laugh at your stupid joke…"

"Naruto, Sasuke cut it out right now…" Sakura flashed her fist at both of them and they decided to drop what they were talking about for the time being since there were bigger things to worry about and once things were settled Tsunade nodded to Jiraiya and he began to speak.

"As I said earlier, my spy was able to deliver me a message pertaining to what Orochimaru has been up to for the last four years and what I read really shocked me…"

"What exactly did it say Ero-Sennin?" Naruto asked him.

Jiraiya reminded silent for a moment before continuing. "It said that Orochimaru is planning another invasion of Konoha sometime in the future. I don't know when since the spy was killed off before he could get that information, but it sounds like it's not too far off, and we've got to send a scouting party to see what exactly he's up too."

Kakashi who had been reading his Icha Icha Paradise novel looked up and added in. "In other words, you want us, team seven to be the scouting party and see what Orochimaru is up to right?"

"In a way, yes we do Kakashi. Your team has had more run-ins with Orochimaru and his lackeys. We also don't know how many others are with his invasion party, but my spy said that Kabuto was also with him, but not the Sound Four since they were defeated years ago."

"Jiraiya is right you know…" Everyone turned their attention to Tsunade who at this point decided to interject since she thought Jiraiya had said enough and she continued.

"In one way or another you've all had your encounters with Orochimaru and you've all trained so hard in the last four years. I believe in all of you and know that you'll accomplish this mission. It will be a dangerous mission and I'm making it an S ranked mission. I'll also give you a few days to prepare for this mission, don't waste time since this mission could be the most important one of your young lives, and now are there any questions?" Tsunade asked after finishing her speech.

"Well, uh… you really didn't bother to entail what our mission is supposed to be Baa-chan," Naruto stated.

"I suppose I did forget to give you a few more details… in any case, it's very simple Naruto. You are to go to the spy's last location and see if there are any signs of activity from Orochimaru. If you do by chance encounter him, you are to eliminate him by any means. Does that explain everything a little bit better Naruto?"

Naruto sheepishly starched the back of his head before answering. "Yeah it does Baa-chan…"

Tsunade entailed a few more details on the mission and once she was done let everyone to their usual task. Kakashi decided to head home himself and catch up on some reading he said while Jiraiya said he had some research of his own to do leaving the three young adult members of Team Seven to their own tasks. They idly chatted among each other until they got outside, and Naruto decided to change the subject since he wanted to know exactly how Sasuke had reached ANBU in the last four years. "Say Sasuke…" Naruto said by way of starting the conversation.

"Huh? What is it dobe?" Sasuke replied.

"How did you get to be a member of ANBU when what you did four years ago almost ruined your career as a shinobi?"

Sasuke just smirked and stopped for a moment to answer Naruto's question. "Let's just say the council took it easier on me than I expected and Kakashi decided to take me in as his student. I trained under him for the last four years, honing my skills and at the last chunin exams, the judges were so impressed with my performance that they promoted me to chunin and after that with a little help from Kakashi, I joined the elite ranks of ANBU last year and I've got to say, it's been one of the best things to happen to me."

Naruto was quite shocked at what he heard from Sasuke, but at the same time happy for his friend so he gave him a smile. "I'm happy for you Sasuke. You've definitely turned around since I was last here…"

Sasuke smirked a little more as he answered back. "It does feel good and I wish I could say the same for you Naruto."

"What do you mean Sasuke?" Naruto questioned him.

"Well, you know… you've been out training with the biggest pervert in the world and you happen to still be a genin. How pathetic is that?" he answered Naruto.

Naruto tried to ignore Sasuke's words and took it as a joke. "I suppose Sasuke, but I bet you anything Baa-chan will promote me once we're done with this mission."

"Yeah as if that will ever happen, I bet you anything, Tsunade-sama will try to keep you genin until she finally retires." Sasuske replied. .

Sakura who had been silent this whole time could see that Naruto was starting to get irritated and silently pleaded with Sasuke to stop and not cause a scene, but he didn't listen continuing his said actions ."If anything, the council will make sure you won't become Hokage. I mean how a demon could run our village…"

Suddenly Sasuke felt himself grabbed by the throat and forcefully pushed into the nearest wall as Naruto looked at him with rage and had a hard time keeping the Kyuubi suppressed as he eyes turned from regular to the fox's slits for a few moments. "Don't push me Sasuke! I thought for sure you had changed, but you're still the same spoiled little bastard you were four years ago!"

"Ah, what's the manner dobe? Did I say something to offend you?" Sasuke continued egging Naruto on.

"Just shut up Sasuke!"

"You know it's the truth dobe…"

Naruto had enough and lost control of himself as his eyes turned red with slits and Sasuke knew what was coming next, but it never came as he felt an impact next to his face and looked to see that the wall had a large dent in it. Naruto released Sasuke and turned around so his face wasn't visible."You're not worth my time Sasuke and besides, I've already got enough to deal with, without you making it worse. I'm going home…"

Naruto started walking back towards his apartment and Sakura ran towards him, grabbing onto his shirt hoping to stop him. "I'll comeback with you Naruto…" she started out saying never finishing her sentence.

Naruto didn't look back at Sakura as he gently removed her hand from his shirt and shocked her by his next words. "No, Sakura… I'll be fine by myself, I need sometime alone right now…"

Sakura watched as Naruto walked back towards his apartment and it made her feel bad, but she wasn't the one at fault this time around. She turned her attention towards Sasuke who barely just got up and he was brushing himself off before Sakura did the exact same thing to him.

"What gives Sakura? Why are you holding me up like this?" Sasuke asked.

"You damn well know why Sasuke!" Sakura replied in a pissed off tone.

Sasuke just smirked before answering Sakura back. "Oh, you mean making fun of the dobe? I thought it would be the best thing to do to goad him into a fight, but it looks like it backfired on me and instead he walked off like a chicken."

Sasuke felt the full force of Sakura's strength as she pushed him further into the wall while she cocked her fist at him, ready to punch him. "That wasn't a very nice of you to do that Sasuke and I'll tell you right now; if I ever catch you doing that to Naruto ever again, I'm going to make you regret doing that. Understand?"

Sasuke just nodded his head as Sakura threw him to the ground unceremoniously and looked to where Naruto had just stood a few moments ago, feeling a stinging feeling in her heart as she held a hand over it."Naruto…"

After their little accident Sakura decided to head home for the time being for she doubted Naruto would let her in or let alone talk to her. It didn't take long for Sakura to reach her house and find her mother was in the living room doing something. Sakura tried to be quiet as she made her way to her room, but her mother heard her and spoke up much to Sakura's dismay. "Sakura honey, is that you?"

"Yes, it is I mother…" Sakura answered back.

Sakura's mother could tell there was something wrong with her daughter just by the way she was acting and patted the seat next to her. "I know there's something on your mind Sakura, so have a seat."

Sakura had hoped to avoid a conversation with her mother, but she figured it was better to get it out then keep it bottled up. "So what's on your mind honey?" her mother asked.

"To start off", began Sakura, "I found out today that shishou has assigned us a new mission and we're to leave in the next few days."

"That's quite some important news Sakura, but I doubt that is what's been on your mind. Did something else happen today?" Her mother asked.

"Yeah…" Sakura replied. Sakura bit her lip as she tried to think of the best words to explain what happened between Naruto and Sasuke. "My teammates were having a good conversation and all of a sudden it turned sour as Sasuke began to make fun of Naruto and it was all because he wanted to goad him into a fight and I almost lost it too and I nearly punched the living daylights out of Sasuke."

Sakura's mother responded by laughing which had Sakura wondering why. "I'm sorry for laughing Sakura, but it's just the way you handled the situation would be like something I'd do."

"What do you mean mother?" Sakura inquired.

"It's just, the same thing happened before your father married me, he was feeling down about something and his friends were making fun of him for it and I decided to defend your father and told his friends off. After that, they never made fun of him when I was around."

"Wow mother… I never knew that about you."

Sakura's mother chuckled a bit before answering back. "I suppose it's one of my kept secrets, but what you did for Naruto Sakura shows just how much you care for him. I also know that he was hurt by what happened today and you tried to comfort him, but he turned you away right?"

"It's not hard to tell honey, it's written on your face. The best thing you can do for him right now is let him have his time alone and eventually he'll come around." Sakuras mother said after she saw the questioning expression on her daughters face.

Sakura smiled at her mother as he embraced her in a hug. "Thanks mother, you're the best."

**Hours later at Naruto's apartment**

The sun had set not too long ago and Naruto didn't seem to care as he tried to get some sleep. He had a big day ahead of him and he wanted to get up early and train for team seven's upcoming mission, but his mind was too active with thoughts of what happened to him in last two days since he had got home. Knowing his heritage, Sasuke's little act, and now the mission had taken a toll on his mind. Each time he tried to get some sleep one of these things would plague his mind forcing him awake.

He splashed some water in his face in hopes that it would help, but it did little to ease his troubled mind. Naruto thought about going to see Sakura, but after what he did today, he was certain she wouldn't want to talk to him, at least not until their mission.

_"I would see what Sakura-chan is up to right now, but I bet she's asleep…"_ Naruto was brought out of his thoughts by a knock on his door. "I wonder who it could be."

Naruto slowly made his way towards his door thinking it could be anyone, and once he opened the door, he was surprised to see who it was. "Sakura-chan?"

Sakura smiled at Naruto as she answered back. "Hey Naruto, I thought I'd come by and see how you were doing"

"You didn't have to Sakura-chan, but that's nice of you" Naruto returned the smile as he invited Sakura into his apartment and they both took a seat on his couch, remaining silent, unsure of what to say to each other until Sakura broke the silence.

"I'm guessing you couldn't sleep either because of the mission right?"

"Yeah…"Naruto answered in a low tone as he turned his head away from Sakura and continued, "But it's also a lot of other things too…"

Naruto tried to keep his composure in front of Sakura, but found it hard as everything boiled over once again and to the shock of Sakura he buried his head in the crook of her neck. Sakura did her best to comfort Naruto embracing him in a hug as he spoke up, but in a choked tone. "It's all too much for me to handle Sakura-chan… everything that's happened in the last two days has been too much. Why? Why do I have to deal with this?"

Sakura brought his face up to hers so they were face to face and she could look into his eyes. He was more broken than he had ever been and Sakura knew he needed someone to be there for him. She had talked to her mother about this yesterday and today and now was the time to finally show Naruto just how much she cared for him, and to his shock she kissed him fully on the lips. He tried to fight it, but there was just something about Sakura's kiss that was inviting, almost as if it took away all his problems.

He returned the kiss fully and melted into it, the both of them holding it for a few minutes before the need for air arose and they broke it off. Naruto was shocked to say the least and looked into Sakura's eyes to see if this was some sort of joke, but when he looked into her eyes; he could see something that wasn't there before, love and affection. Sakura further proved it by moving in closer to Naruto and gently squeezing his hand as she spoke up.

"I know it's quite a shock for you Naruto, but make no mistake, I did kiss you because I realized something I should have years ago… I love you."

Those three little words struck a chord with Naruto. He had longed to hear those words especially from Sakura and now it was coming true. He began to cry as he answered back. "Do you... really mean it Sakura-chan?"

Sakura softly smiled at Naruto as she kissed him on the lips once again. "Yes, I do Naruto. I'm sorry it took me so long to realize my feelings for you, but over the four years that you were gone, I started to develop feelings for you and in the last two days, I've only realized they mean something more than just friendship… I want to be the one you can rely on the most Naruto and I'll always be here for you."

More tears were shed as Naruto embraced Sakura in a hug. "Sakura-chan, I can't thank you enough. This means so much to me."

Sakura smiled once again at Naruto as she played with some of his hair. "I know Naruto… it means a lot to me too."

They shared another kiss and held it for a few moments before breaking it off and once again looked into each other's eyes. Something had awoken within them, something they had both longed for and tonight would be the night where they would explore their feelings for each other in-depth as Naruto gently picked up Sakura, and carried her off towards his room.


	9. A Night Of Passion

**Author's Note: I haven't done any author's note for the last few chapters because I let them speak for themselves, but this chapter is a little bit different because unlike the other chapters, this chapter is why the story has it's M rating, so if your sensitive to lemony content, it's best if you avoid this chapter altogether, but for those of you that enjoy lemony content, read ahead as I promise this chapter will be quite steamy. Enjoy!**

No words were needed to be said as Naruto carried Sakura to his bedroom arriving in Naruto's roon in less than a minute. Naruto gently placed Sakura onto his bed and proceeded to join her but he stopped cold in his tracks all the sudden. His self-control was starting to override his lust and Sakura wondered what was going on for she could see Naruto having a battle with himself. _"What am I thinking? I don't know if I'm ready for this… hell I don't even know if Sakura-chan is ready."_

His lustful side decided to add in its two cents to the conversation. _"You know you want to bang her! Stop pussyfooting around and take her already!"_

_"I can't! Not yet, until I at least know Sakura-chan wants to go through with this…"_ Naruto turned his attention to Sakura as she got up off his bed and walked over to him, putting her hands on his shoulders and spoke. "Is something wrong Naruto?"

"It's nothing big Sakura-chan, but I just realized something… we're both still pretty new to these feelings we have and I don't know if we're ready to take that next step just yet…" Naruto said.

Sakura could only smile at Naruto's words. He was always thinking of her well-being first and considered if their actions might have any consequences, but she was more than ready for this. She wanted Naruto to make her a woman and finally claim what was his, and besides she owed this to him after everything he'd done for her. Sakura moved her hands from Naruto's shoulders and down to his hands, squeezing them. "I'm more than ready Naruto, I want this and if you're still unsure, maybe this will change your mind."

Before Naruto could react Sakura had smashed her lips against his and brought him into another kiss, this one felt much more passionate and filled with need. Sakura decided to take things a little bit further so she used her leg and grinded against Naruto's covered crotch, making him moan a little but he didn't break the kiss with Sakura and lead her back towards his bed, making the both of them fall on it. They held the kiss for a few more seconds until the need for air arose and breaking off the kiss they noticed a string of saliva trailing from their mouths, making them both blush.

Once they cleaned the said saliva from their mouths Naruto saw that Sakura was eager for him to take her right now, but he wasn't about to rush things and spotted Sakura still wearing her sandals from earlier which gave him an idea. He got off the bed much to Sakura's dismay and smiled at her as he bent down reaching for the straps of her sandals and slowly and carefully undoing the straps one by one revealing Sakura's legs which were soft and smooth to the touch he did the same for the other sandal and tossed them into his room leaving Sakura barefoot and wondering what he was going to do next. She didn't have to wait too long for she suddenly felt Naruto kissing up and down her legs which sent a jolt of pleasure through her body making her moan lightly at his said actions.

Sakura unconsciously kicked her feet playfully as Naruto continued his actions for a few moments before growing tired and rejoining Sakura on his bed. He softly smiled at her as he gently pushed her down on his bed and hovered above her for a moment before bending down, planting a light kiss on her lips and proceeded down to her neck where he drew in closer and started suckling Sakura's neck earning a few more moans from her. While Naruto continued to kiss Sakura on her neck he snuck one of his hands down to her red vest and grabbed the zipper.

He silently tugged at the zipper and it came loose as it slid down Sakura's chest until it hit bottom. He stopped kissing Sakura on her neck as he looked down to see what had now been exposed to him and Sakura blushed red realizing that Naruto had unzipped her shirt, but she didn't bother to zip it back up as she allowed Naruto to look at her.

Sakura wore a tight fishnet shirt underneath her red shirt that clung to her body nicely showing off the curves of her body and reasonable bust size. The fishnet stopped just above her black spandex shorts and Naruto nervously put one of his hands underneath the fishnet drawing it up exposing Sakura's flat and toned stomach. He traced a hand over her stomach feeling how soft it was too the touch before he drew his face down to her stomach and started licking it while planting a few kisses here and there. It sent other jolt of pleasure through Sakura as she slowly rocked back and forth making it difficult for Naruto to continue his actions. Sakura felt as Naruto started to lift her fishnet up even more and almost exposing her breasts, but she stopped him.

"Why'd you stop me for Sakura-chan? I was getting to the good part?"

Sakura readjusted her fishnet so it covered her stomach and she smiled at Naruto answering him back.

"I can't let you have all the fun now, can I Naruto?"

"I guess not…"

Naruto didn't finish his sentence as he felt Sakura flip them over so they were in opposite positions as Sakura straddled his waist for a moment before bending down to capture Naruto's lips in a kiss. Her kiss seemed more passionate, but Naruto liked it as he melted into it and she kissed him furiously licking at his lips wanting entrance into his mouth and he didn't deny Sakura that request and kissed him even harder. Naruto thought Sakura was going to rip out his mouth as she kissed and licked at his mouth wrapping her tongue around his and they danced for a few moments enjoying the said kiss before Sakura needed to breathe. She broke away and Naruto could see from her eyes that there was lust there.

He tried to flip Sakura over as her kissing had also instilled some lust into him, but he found himself firmly planted to his bed as Sakura reached her hands down to the hem of his black shirt and quickly removed the article of clothing leaving him bare from the chest up. Naruto didn't blush as he felt comfortable enough with Sakura seeing him shirtless and she drank in the site before her.

The years had been nice to Naruto and his teenage body had been honed and shaped to perfection. His skin was surprisingly smooth to the touch as she ran her fingers over his well-developed abs and Naruto shivered out in pleasure as Sakura ran her fingers over his body a moment long before leaning down and to Naruto's surprise stuck out her tongue and licked along his abs all the way down to his pants making him harden up in a certain area.

Naruto was enjoying the attention Sakura was giving to his stomach area when he felt his pants being undone and just like Sakura had done to him he quickly put a stop to her actions.

"Wow, wow! Hang on a sec Sakura-chan! Now that I'm topless, I only think it's fair if you allow me to do the same thing."

Sakura just nodded as she allowed Naruto to remove her red vest tossing the said article of clothing into his room leaving Sakura in her fishnet top. Naruto then proceeded to lift up Sakura's fishnet top exposing her stomach once again and moved it further up until it shadowed just above her breasts and just as quickly as she had rid Naruto of his shirt; her fishnet had been removed leaving her naked from the waist up. Sakura felt a bit self-conscious of what Naruto thought of her breasts and quickly covered them as his attention was quickly drawn to tossing the fishnet shirt into his room. Naruto could see Sakura covering herself and wondered why.

"Why are you covering yourself up for Sakura-chan?"

Sakura turned red in embarrassment as she answered back.

"Well, it's just… this will be the first time a guy has ever seen my breasts and I was always made fun of because of my small size."

Naruto let out a small laugh as he moved in closer to Sakura.

"Sakura-chan, I don't care if your breasts are small, I think you're beautiful no manner what."

Sakura softly smiled back in response as she slowly removed her hands from her breasts allowing Naruto to look at him while blushing red still.

"So what do you think?"

Naruto leaned in and kissed Sakura on the lips as he responded.

"I think their perfect Sakura-chan…"

Naruto leaned in to get a better look at Sakura's breasts and he might have gone crazy if this had been the first pair of breasts he had seen, but truth be told during his four years away from Konoha he had seen more breasts then he cared to mention, all thanks to Jiraiya and unlike some of the breasts he seen, Sakura had perfect breasts. They weren't too big or small, they were just the right size and he could tell just from the way they looked, they looked quite hard, more than likely being exposed to the cold air.

He cautiously and gently grabbed one of Sakura's breasts to see what her reaction was and he was quite pleased as Sakura let out a long moan. Naruto got a little more confident as he grabbed her other breast and began to slowly massaged both breasts, making them that much harder than they were while Sakura was unable to keep up with the pleasure and forcefully shoved Naruto's face into her breasts and made him blush at her statement.

"That feels so fucking good! Do more to them Naruto!"

Naruto smirked as he never took Sakura for being a closet pervert and nodded as he did what she said. He lightly bit on one of her erect nipples and continued to massage the other while Sakura moaned out his name seductively making him harden up even more. He had never been one to listen to Jiraiya's advice, but smiled knowing he was putting his advice to good use on Sakura. He continued alternating between suckling Sakura's breasts and massaging them before growing tired of doing the said actions and stopped much to Sakura's dismay once again.

Naruto smiled at Sakura as he moved down to her black spandex shorts. "I think it's about time we move a little lower, don't you think Sakura-chan?"

Sakura shivered in anticipation as Naruto hooked his hands into the waistband of Sakura's short and slowly peeled them off her body. She helped along by wiggling her hips to make it easier for Naruto to remove the article of clothing and just like with all the others it was forgotten in his room. Sakura now stood in front of Naruto in only a pair of panties and he smirked as he got a good look at them. They were the boy cut variety and they hugged close to her body and what amused Naruto even more was the color of them.

"Green colored panties Sakura-chan? I never knew you'd actually find a pair to match your eyes."

Sakura flushed red with embarrassment again and turned her head away from him as she answered. "Who cares? I like them and besides, they're my favorite pair…"

Naruto laughed in response as he reached for her panties, but was stopped as Sakura smirked at him again. "You've already divested me of most of my clothing Naruto and like you mentioned earlier, it's only fair if you're the same."

"Well, what are you waiting for then Sakura-chan?" Naruto really shouldn't have said that as he soon found himself flipped over once again and Sakura looked at him with lust filled eyes as she unbuttoned his pants and removed them rather easily leaving him in a pair of green boxers with purple dots on it making Sakura laugh at the said piece of clothing and making Naruto feel embarrassed. "Oh shut up…"

Sakura continued to laugh for a few moments before turning her attention towards Naruto's boxers and the rather large tent that was visible underneath it. Sakura licked her lips in anticipation and reached for his boxers making Naruto think she was going to remove the article of clothing, but instead putting one of her hands underneath the boxers as she lightly squeezed his member making Naruto hiss out in pleasure and Sakura herself was quite impressed with what she felt.

_"Wow, I don't know what to say, but I can definitely tell Naruto is well endowed. I just wonder how much?"_ She gave his member another experimental squeeze and rubbed it up and down before pulling off his boxers leaving Naruto naked before her. Sakura looked down to see his now exposed member and boy was he aroused. She wasn't sure how to proceed from here, but decided to let her instincts guide her as she reached down and grabbed Naruto's member. She began to lightly rub his member up and down all the while Naruto tried to contain the moans that were escaping his mouth as Sakura continued.

Naruto couldn't take much more of Sakura's actions and felt himself about to explode when Sakura stopped. He looked at her with curiosity as she bent down and to his surprise inserted his member halfway into her mouth and started sucking on it. Sakura's actions seemed much more vigorous as she bobbed her head up and down making Naruto swell that much more in her mouth and he couldn't hold on much longer as her actions finally had a reaction. "I'm going too cum!"

Naruto tried his best to hold back, but his pleasure made it hard to control himself and he released inside of Sakura's mouth. Naruto shuttered in the wake of his orgasm and looked down to see Sakura smiling as she drank in his fluids and it turned him on watching her lick her fingers clean of his essence. Naruto smiled at Sakura as she rejoined him on the bed and it allowed him a few moments to recover and ask her something. "Wow… I don't know what to say Sakura-chan. I never knew you had it in you like that…"

Sakura returned the smile as she kissed Naruto on the cheek before responding. "Well, you could say I've had some advice from shishou, but most of it came from Ino when she had me read these magazines…"

"You're not the only one, I had advice from Ero-Sennin most of the time and I think it's about time I put one particular piece of advice from him to work"

"What do you mean Naruto?"

"You'll see Sakura-chan" is all he said.

Naruto kissed down Sakura's hand much to her surprise before he snaked one of his hands over her panties. He could feel how moist Sakura was as his hand entered her panties; without warning Naruto inserted two of his fingers into Sakura's wet folds feeling just how tight she was as he continued to insert his fingers further. Sakura gasped at the sudden intrusion of her most scared area, but once again he began pumping both his fingers in and out of her; she couldn't help but moan out in pleasure as she captured Naruto's lips in another kiss while he continued.

Naruto didn't need to continue for much longer for Sakura could feel her insides react to his finger banging and her walls tightened around his fingers as she came. Sakura saw stars as she recovered from her orgasm and felt Naruto remove both his fingers from her folds. She could clearly see that both of his fingers were covered in her essence as he dipped them into his mouth tasting her essence. "Mmm… you taste great Sakura-chan."

Sakura blushed at Naruto's comment and proceeded to grab at her panties, pulling them off leaving her stark naked just like Naruto when he saw what she did. "Sakura-chan… you know what comes next right?"

"I do Naruto and I want us to continue, I want us remember this night."

Naruto smiled at Sakura's comment as he laid her down again and brushed his member against her wet womanhood, a need of release engulfing the both of them as Naruto gently inserted himself into the woman he loved with all of his heart. He could feel the tightness enveloping him as he inserted more and more of himself into her, but he stopped suddenly when he heard Sakura yelp out a little and tears started forming in her eyes. He hated hurting Sakura in any kind of way and thought about pulling out, but then it would make things that much more difficult.

He pulled himself and Sakura upright than he preceded planting butterfly kisses all over her face in hopes of making things easier for her and she kissed back to tell him that she appreciated his concern than bucked her hips to let him know that she was ready for him to continue. Naruto continued to insert himself until he felt he could go no more and allowed Sakura a moment to adjust to his length which was driving her crazy. Never before had she felt this kind of feeling, it was all new to her, but she liked it but she nibbled on Naruto's ear telling him to go slow at first.

He did as she said and slowly began to move at a slow pace until Naruto felt as though he could pick up the pace and allowed Sakura to match his pace. The pleasure they were both feeling was truly amazing as Sakura's tight walls kept massaging Naruto's member while his length made Sakura feel complete and she raked her nails slowly down his back as he picked up the pace, sweating gleaming from their love making, but too soon they felt their end coming near.

Naruto tried to pull himself out, but felt Sakura stop him from doing so as she wrapped her legs around him and increased her pace making him moan out some more before he finally exploded, filling Sakura up with his essence while she came a few seconds later spilling her juices on his length before the both of them finally collapsed into a sweaty heap on Naruto's bed looking into each other's eyes with a sense of accomplishment. Using what strength he had left Naruto quickly pulled his covers over them. He moved in closer to Sakura and wrapped his arms around her and brushed some of her disheveled hair aside smiling at her.

"Do you think you'll regret what we did tonight Sakura-chan?"

Sakura kissed Naruto on the lips and returned his smile. "I don't think I'll ever regret it Naruto, I'm glad we did it because it makes us that much closer…"

Sakura didn't finish her sentence because she looked over to see Naruto had fallen asleep, he had a genuine smile on his face for once and Sakura knew his nights wouldn't be filled with loneliness anymore and she kissed him once more on the cheek.

"I love you Naruto, I'll see you in the morning." Sakura snuggled in closer to Naruto and allowed sleep finally to take her over as she thought about where the future would take her, not just for herself, but Naruto as well since he would be there with her every step of the way.


	10. Before The Mission

The sun rose in Konoha, signifying the start of a new day and its rays greeted the sleeping form of Sakura who shuffled slightly opening her eyes and shielding them from the sun's rays. She turned her head to see the still sleeping form of Naruto and she let a soft smile cross her face. She removed herself from Naruto's strong arms and proceeded to get out of his bed and a rather pleasant ache in her lower regions greeted her as she got out of bed. She looked around for a second and gathered up her green panties and Naruto's shirt from last night to wear for the time being as she made her way towards his kitchen to see if he had anything to eat.

Unfortunately for Sakura, she had never been in his apartment, let alone stay the night and she didn't know where to begin looking for food. She checked his fridge and found it was full of nothing but ramen and her search in his cabinets didn't go much better as she found more ramen.

"Seriously is this the only thing Naruto ever eats? If he keeps ingesting anymore of this crap, he's going to end up having a heart attack…"

Sakura was about to have another look through his cabinets when she heard a light knock on his door. "Hmm, I wonder who that could be at this time of morning."

Sakura curiously walked up to the door hesitating for a moment since she wasn't exactly sure who was on the other side, but then again no rouge-ninja would have the balls to attack them here in Konoha. She opened up the door to reveal none other than her white haired sensei who smiled back at her.

"Sakura… I'm surprised to see you here," said the person on the other side of the doorway.

"I could say the same to you Kakashi-sensei" Sakura answered back.

"I'm not going to ask what happened, but I have somewhat of an idea…_*shake those dirty thoughts from your head!*_… err anyway I'm here to let you know that later on this morning I'm going to have team seven meet up once again so we can practice some teamwork for old times' sake before we head off on this mission, so could you let Naruto know too?"

"Sure Kakashi-sensei, I'll let Naruto know…" Once Sakura was done talking to Kakashi, she closed the door and shook her head as she smiled. "I swear… Kakashi-sensei is such a closet pervert sometimes."

Sakura made her way back towards Naruto's room and saw that he was still asleep. She sat down on the end of the bed and moved in closer to his sleeping form and started playing with some of his hair. She was surprised at how soft it felt and just smiled as she continued for a few more moments before Naruto finally started to wake up. He seemed a bit groggy letting out a large yawn before rubbing his eyes to get a better look at Sakura who smiled back at him and planted a kiss on his cheek. "It's about time you woke up sleepyhead."

Naruto yawned once more before answering Sakura back. "Sorry Sakura-chan, but I was just having a wonder dream about a special someone and what we did last night…"

Sakura smirked as she leaned in closer to give him a much more passionate kiss on the lips. "Oh really now, was it any different from what happened last night?"

"Not really… the only real difference was the fact that in my dream you were screaming and begging me to go faster…"

"Oh my… it sounds like one hell of a dream, but besides that Naruto, why don't you have anything else to eat besides ramen? Don't you at least keep a supply of stuff for breakfast?"

Naruto gave Sakura a sad look as he answered back. "I wish I did Sakura-chan, honestly, but anytime I tried to get near the stores, the owners would chase me away and even those that allowed me in their shops charged me outrageous prices. That's why I've always got ramen… it's the only thing I can afford."

Naruto held his head down in sadness and looked as though he was about to cry, but he felt a pair of arms wrap around him and pull him into a hug which made him feel better.

"I'm sorry Naruto… I had no idea. I always thought you ate ramen because you liked it so much, but you know what…"Sakura lifted Naruto's head so they were face to face and she smiled at him as she continued. "But that will change now… you're got to come with me to my house and have a proper breakfast."

"Sakura-chan… that's probably the first time anyone has invited me, but won't your parents be pissed off if you bring the demon to their home?"

"No, I doubt my mother will object, in fact she's been wanting to meet you since you came back and I think it's as good as any time for you to meet her."

"Your mother wanting to meet me… I really don't think it's a good idea especially after what happened last night."

Sakura smiled at Naruto as she suddenly grabbed his hand. "You worry too much Naruto! Come on let's get dressed!"

Naruto was himself stunned by Sakura's sudden action and wondered why she was dragging him to the bathroom, but he didn't have to wait long for an answer as Sakura smirked at him and proceeded to remove his shirt from her form and it wasn't too long before her panties joined the shirt on the floor. He knew exactly what she wanted and returned the smirk as he was pulled hastily into the bathroom and the door shut and a few minutes later a series of moans and screams emanated from within.

It wasn't too long before Naruto and Sakura were fully clothed and walking towards her house and they had a rather large grin plastered to their faces as they held hands and continued towards Sakura's house. During the walk Sakura had informed Naruto of Kakashi's visit earlier and he seemed quite pleased to be able to do a little training today. Naruto also decided to ask Sakura about her parents and he was quite shocked to learn that her father was dead. Sakura herself was just a baby when he died, but according to what her mother told her, the Kyuubi had taken his life and Sakura reassured Naruto that it wasn't his fault. He thanked her for the comforting words and they realized they had finally reached her house.

Naruto felt quite nervous as they approached Sakura's house and he remained outside as Sakura went inside. It was a few moments before Sakura reappeared with a smile on her smile. "It's all right Naruto, you can come in."

Naruto slowly walked inside and saw that Sakura's place seemed homely and for some odd reason inviting. An older woman who looked exactly like Sakura suddenly popped out of the kitchen and walked up to Naruto and smiled at him. "Naruto… it's good to finally meet you. My daughter has told me many things about you."

Naruto felt like a nervous wreck as the elder Haruno held out her hand so he could shake it, but he backed up a little and bowed to her much to the surprise of both women. "I thank you for allowing me to have breakfast with you Haruno-sama, it's an honor!"

Naruto closed his eyes expecting the worst, but he heard laughing as he opened them to see that Sakura's mother was laughing, she stopped a moment later and smiled at Naruto than patted him lightly on the shoulder. "There's no for formalities Naruto. You can just call me mom"

Naruto looked at the elder Haruno with a blank stare before answering back. "If you insist mom…"

Sakura's mother had another good laugh at Naruto's response before leading the both of them into the dining room where she had breakfast set up and Naruto's mouth started to water seeing what was for breakfast, but he stopped short seeing exactly what it was. "Huh? What type of breakfast is this exactly? I've never seen anything like it before."

"Usually I'd never make this myself Naruto, but I felt like having something different, it's more of a western breakfast you could say."

Naruto didn't complain about the breakfast of eggs, bacon, and sausage as he ate his fair share and tried not to make himself look like a pig in front of Sakura's mother and things actually went smoothly during their breakfast as they talked about what they had done during their four years and once they were done with breakfast Naruto thanked her and offered to help the elder Haruno with the dishes while Sakura changed into her sparring clothes. Even with Sakura upstairs Naruto still felt somewhat nervous around Sakura's mother as he dried the dishes.

"So Naruto… you've known my daughter for twelve years right?"

"Yes, I have Mrs. Haruno and honestly I can say Sakura-chan is one of the best teammates I've had."

The elder Haruno nodded her head a bit before answering back and Naruto nearly dropped one of her dishes by her next question. "What exactly makes you attracted to my daughter Naruto?"

Naruto remained silent for a few moments as he tried to think of an answer. "Well, it's kind of hard to explain without going into too much detail, but what makes me attracted to Sakura was something that happened almost twelve years ago… I remember seeing Sakura-chan under a tree and crying. It was the first time I got a good look at her, her emerald eyes and pink hair really captivated me and I wondered why she was crying. It wasn't too long before I saw some girls picking on her because of her forehead. It broke my heart seeing those bullies doing that to her and I really wanted to go over there and stop them, but I didn't because a blonde haired girl who I'm sure you know stepped in and stopped them."

Naruto stopped for a moment as he looked to the elder Haruno who just nodded at him to continue.

"I knew she felt some of the pain I had to endure and I wanted to be friends with her, but since everyone's parents always told their kids to avoid me, I decided that it was best to leave Sakura-chan alone, and not get involved with her life. Ever since that day, I've watched her grow and my love for her also grew. I knew that she was the one I loved and I vowed to do whatever it took to make her happy, even if it cost me my own life. I truly do love Sakura-chan and nothing will change that."

Naruto could hear crying and looked to see that Sakura's mother was crying and he thought he had doing something wrong as he tried to comfort the elder Haruno. "I'm sorry Mrs. Haruno! I didn't mean to make you cry by saying those things…"

Mrs. Haruno smiled at Naruto and embraced him in a hug as she answered back. "You don't need to be sorry for what you said Naruto. I'm just crying because what you've told me is one of the most beautiful things I've heard. I never thought someone could love my daughter that deeply, but your words prove just how much you care for her. If you ever ask for her hand in marriage, I'd more than honored to give you my blessing."

Naruto blushed red at the mention of being married to Sakura, it was something he always wanted, but there were other things he needed to focus on first, mainly their upcoming mission. As they were about to continue their conversation the both of them heard a voice behind them and saw Sakura looking at them questioningly.

"Mom, Naruto, what are you doing?"

Naruto and Mrs. Haruno broke off the hug as she answered for the both of them. "I was just hugging Naruto because I wanted to thank him for helping me with the dishes."

Sakura seemed to buy the lie and just smiled. "All right, but you need to hurry Naruto since Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke are waiting for us."

"I know, but we need to stop by my apartment really quick since I need to change into my sparring clothes too," Naruto said.

Naruto and Sakura left her house while Sakura's mother waved them goodbye and it didn't take long for Naruto to switch into his usual clothes and once they were done at his apartment, they headed for the training fields where both Kakashi and Sasuke were waiting. Once they reached the training grounds they saw that only Sasuke was there and Kakashi was late as usual. Sasuke noticed their presence and lifted his head and gave them his usual unemotional greeting and didn't say anything.

"Hey! You could give us at least a hello teme!"

Sasuke just muttered as he got up from his spot and moved away from them making Naruto irritated grabbed onto Sasuke's jacket and stopped him.

"Will you say something Sasuke; you're acting like a complete douche right now. I know you usually act this way, but even for you this is outrageous! Just say hello to us dammit"

Sasuke pushed Naruto's hand off of him and finally answered. "I don't have to say anything to you dobe…"

"Why you, Naruto began.

Naruto and Sasuke argued back and forth as Sakura watched on with interest, it almost reminded her of the days when they were genin and this is exactly what they would do until Kakashi finally showed up, but what Naruto said next shocked Sakura.

"That's it teme! I'm got to unstick that stick from your ass!"

Sasuke smirked as he turned to look at Naruto. "Is that supposed to be a threat dobe?"

"You know damn well it is and if that doesn't change your mind, this will!" Naruto jumped back a few feet and started to form something in his hand and Sakura knew all too well what the rounded ball of chakra was while Sasuke's smirk got bigger and a familiar lightning started to emanate from his hands.

"I was wondering when you were going to get physical dobe, but I guess I didn't need to wait long…"

Sasuke took a few more seconds to charge up his chidori and Sakura watched on in shock as both Naruto and Sasuke ran towards each other with their strongest attacks, it was too familiar to her, it was like that time on top of the hospital roof and at that time Sakura couldn't do anything, but watch and now that she was strong, she wouldn't allow them to hurt each other. She focused chakra in her hands and dashed forward hoping to stop the both of them, but Sakura had reacted too late and she wouldn't get there in time. She closed her eyes and feared for the worst.

It never came though, Sakura opened her eyes and saw someone standing in the middle between Naruto and Sasuke, both of their attacks stopped short of each other as the person spoke up.

"That's enough from the both of you!"

Naruto and Sasuke looked to see that Kakashi was the one that had gotten between them and he was holding onto their hands and they could tell despite his mask covering him, he was pissed off.

"Dispel your attacks right now Naruto and Sasuke before I make you…"

Naruto was the first to dispel his rasengan and Sasuke shortly followed with his chidori as Kakashi looked at the both of them with a look of scorn. "I can't believe the both of you… trying to kill each other days before the mission. I expected better from the both of you!"

Naruto held his head down in shame while Sasuke just turned away with a smirk on his face.

"I wouldn't be smirking if I was you Sasuke, I know you were the one that started this little accident and I saw what you did yesterday. You of all people should be ashamed of yourself, using dirty underhanded schemes to goad a fellow teammate into a fight, that's low even for you…"

Sasuke just muttered to himself as he turned to sit in the spot he had before and Kakashi turned his attention towards Naruto who still looked ashamed of what he had done, but Kakashi told him it was okay as he put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. Naruto gave him a soft smile as they all gathered around Kakashi.

"All right then… let's forget what happened a few moments ago and focus on what we need to accomplish today. As you're aware, team seven has been broken up for the last four years and in that time we've all gotten stronger, but we haven't worked as a team and we need to refine our skills once more as a team. So if there are no objections, let's get started by doing some sparring."

The other members of team seven nodded their heads as they began to spar for the next few hours and within those hours Kakashi was surprised at how well they were coming along, he expected them to be a bit more rusty than his, but Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were able to take him on easily forcing him to use his sharingan although he did notice Sasuke was holding back some. He also took note of how well Naruto and Sakura worked together as a team during the preempted bell test. Then again he wasn't all that surprised since their bond was something special and he was sure it would see them through this mission.

Several hours of sparring later Kakashi decided to call it quits and allowed them to go home, they would continue tomorrow and the next day until they left. Naruto decided to walk Sakura home since he felt it was the nice thing to do.

"I can't believe Sasuke would do that to you Naruto…"

"Then again I should've expected that since I know Sasuke still holds a grudge against me for bringing him back those four years ago…"

"I just hope he'll get that stick out of his ass before we go on this mission."

Naruto and Sakura laughed at the comment and talked for a few more minutes before saying goodbye to each other. Naruto watched as Sakura walked back into her house and he felt a bit lonely as he was now left by himself. He had been used to Sakura's company, but she still lived with her mother and it would probably remain that way for a while to come.

Night came rather fast for Naruto as he settled into his bed wanting to get an early start on training in the morning, but just as he was about to fall asleep there was a knock on his door. "Dammit! Just when I'm about to get some sleep… I wonder who it is. If it's Sasuke I'm going to kick his ass and then make him beg for mercy…"

Naruto opened his door and he was rather surprised by who it was. "Sakura-chan, what are you doing here?"

Sakura softly smiled at Naruto as answered back. "Well, you see Naruto… after what we did last night and how right it felt being in your apartment… I just can't see myself living with my mother; I want to live here with you."

"Say what? Are you serious Sakura-chan?"

Sakura just laughed as she pulled out a small scroll. "I am Naruto and I even packed some of my stuff. I talked to my mother about it and she didn't disagree with me when I told her I wanted to move in with you."

"This is all sudden so Sakura-chan… I mean… my apartment isn't exactly meant for two people," Naruto answered.

Sakura laughed once again and walked into Naruto's apartment taking a seat on his couch. "I think we'll make it work out Naruto."

The next few days were quite interesting for Naruto and Sakura as the both of them adjusted living in the same apartment and despite its small size they both made it work like Sakura said and her mother even came to visit to see how the both of them were doing and it seemed while Sakura was moving in she had spilled the beans to her mother about their night together. Naruto feared that her mother would have his balls for what he did, but she just nudged and winked at him, saying good job leaving him quite shocked and embarrassed.

Despite all the excitement Naruto and Sakura had not lost sight of what was important and the day finally came when they had to leave Konoha to go on their mission. Team seven met early in the morning and headed out, they would have a long road ahead of them. Naruto glanced one last time at Konoha and he felt uneasy as the village disappeared from his view. "I'm not too sure what it is, but something tells me this mission is not going to end well…"


	11. You're Never Alone

_**Naruto's Dreamscape**_

_Naruto slowly opened his eyes and expected the brightness of morning to greet him, but upon opening his eyes, he noticed that it was still rather dark out and he went to close his eyes once again when he suddenly realized that he wasn't outside at all. He was inside a building, he wasn't sure what type of building, but judging from the foul smell in the air, it must have been some type of torture chamber or something. He tried moving his hands, but found they were chained to the wall and the harder he struggled the deeper the chains cut into his wrist and his legs were of no use either._

_Naruto tried focusing some chakra into his arms and legs in hopes of breaking the chains, but I proved ineffective as his chakra dissipated the moment he gathered it._ _"Dammit! Chakra enhanced chains… just great!"_

_Knowing that he couldn't struggle against the chains, Naruto peered into the darkness of the room to see if he could see anything, but it didn't do him any good since he could barely make anything out. He started to get rather angry and yelled out in his frustration._

"_Whoever did this to me, you better show yourself right now or else I'll have to get psychical!"_

_The silence in the room remained for a moment before a laughter cut through it and seemed to answer Naruto's yells._ _"Poor, poor Naruto-kun, chained to the wall and there's nothing you can do about it…"_

_Naruto bit his lower lip in anger, answering back._ _"Why don't you stop hiding in the darkness and show yourself you bastard!"_

"_My, my, very impatient are we Naruto-kun? I suppose I owe you that much for how long you've been chained up in here."_

_Naruto could barely make out the figure walking in the darkness towards him, but as soon as they entered the light around Naruto, he felt his skin crawl as he got a good look at his captivator. The person stood just a bit taller than him and wore clothing that he didn't recognize, but their pale white skin and yellow eyes made them known to Naruto who gasped out their name._ "_Orochimaru…_"

_The snake sanin smirked at Naruto as he walked up to him and cupped one of his whiskered cheeks. "You've gotten quite strong within the last few years Naruto-kun, you almost beat me and if it weren't for Kabuto, I'd probably be dead by now…"_

_Naruto turned his head away from Orochimaru so he wouldn't have to eye the sanin and if he didn't know any better, he swore Orochimaru was looking at him in a pedophilia way. He shook those thoughts from his head as the sanin spoke up._

"_It's a pity though… your teammates were no match for us. Sasuke-kun and the copy-ninja put up quite a fight, but it was too little and I slaughtered them like the Konoha pigs they are._"

_Naruto could feel his blood start to boil as the Kyuubi started to take over him, but he was able to control it for now leaving his blue eyes with silts. He bared his teeth at him and tried to punch the sanin, but it was futile on his part since he was chained. Orochimaru looked on with delight at what was happening before him._

"_Yes, yes! That's it! Release the full power of the Kyuubi! I want to see what you're truly capable of._"

"_I don't think so you sick bastard…_" _Naruto was able to repress the Kyuubi, but not for long as Orochimaru's smirked turned larger and he pointed towards another part of the room._

"_If you won't release the Kyuubi now, I know of one person that will get you too._"

_Suddenly the dark area was bathed in light and there stood another figure, bound and chained just like Naruto. It took him a few minutes to adjust his eyes, but the moment he did, he felt his heart sink at who he saw._ "_Sakura-chan… no_!"

_There stood Sakura half beaten and bloody. Her body covered in cuts and bruises while her clothing had various rips and tears in it. She seemed to hear Naruto's voice and looked up at him, her usually bright emerald eyes now lifeless. She weakly smiled at Naruto and her voice was barely a whisper as she spoke up._ "_Naruto… please… help me_"

_She tried to reach out to Naruto, but her chained hand fell down a moment later and Naruto felt his anger start to rise once again, this time the Kyuubi taking a little bit more control as his eyes darkened __to a blood red. Orochimaru seemed to relish the sight and walked over to Sakura's half-conscious body making Naruto growl at him in his kyyubified state._

"_**You bastard! You better not lay a finger on Sakura-chan or else I'll make you regret it!"**_

_Orochimaru ignored Naruto's threats and without warning withdrew a sword from his mouth and pointed it as Sakura's neck._ "_I wonder what would happen if I actually killed your little teammate Naruto-kun_?"

_Naruto's whisker marks darkened more and he started to sprout tails from the Kyuubi's chakra, but the chains on him held fast as he struggled against them once more._ "_**You wouldn't dare!"**_

"_I wouldn't now?_" _Before Naruto had a chance to react he heard a sickening noise and saw that Orochimaru had impaled Sakura through her shoulder where her heart was and immediately blood began at an alerting rate from the fresh wound. Naruto could only watch in horror as tears formed in his eyes._

"_SAKURA-CHAN! NO!_"

_Orochimaru laughed as he withdrew the sword from Sakura's shoulder and stepped back allowing Naruto one more glance at his now dying teammate and the girl he loved with all his heart as she weakly smiled at him once more before closing her eyes and softly whispering something before she died._

"_I'm sorry Naruto…_"

_The tears ran free from Naruto's eyes as he felt the hatred within him reach a breaking point and finally after almost seventeen years of containment, the most powerful of the bijuu was reborn because of a simple murder. Orochimaru could only watch on in horror as one of the Kyuubi's claws reached out to him and clawed him decapitating his head easily._

"NO!"

Naruto jumped up in his sleeping bag covered in a cold sweat. He looked around to see that it was still dark outside and luckily everyone else seemed to be still asleep despite his sudden outburst. He quietly got out of his sleeping bag and headed towards the river they were camped at. He splashed some of the water on his face and despite the coldness of the water, it felt good on his skin which was still covered in a thin layer of sweat as he settled down near the river and thought to himself.

"What type of dream was that? Usually I'd never had dreams that detailed and yet this one felt so real… why is this happening all of a sudden? Is it some sort of warning, telling me what the future will bring me or is it a sign for me not to be with Sakura-chan. I don't know what it is, but I should just keep quiet about it right now and not tell everyone since we have this mission to worry about."

It had been two days since Team Seven had left Konoha and they were about a day and a half away from where Orochimaru's hideout was supposed to be and it started to make Naruto worry, perhaps he wasn't cut out for this type of mission just yet, but maybe the built up stress of worrying about this mission was starting to get to him and the Kyuubi usually liked to play tricks on him by showing him vivid dreams like the one he had. Naruto felt like going into his head to have a conversation with the Kyuubi, but he sensed other presence near him and pulled out a kunai, ready to defend himself.

"Easy does it Naruto, I'm not the enemy."

Naruto blinked quickly and saw that the person was none other than his gray haired sensei who walked up to Naruto and took a seat next to him. Naruto put the kunai in his pouch as Kakashi spoke up to him. "You're up quite early Naruto, any reason?"

Naruto quickly tried to think of something since he didn't want Kakashi to suspect anything and put on his best fake smile when finally answering back. "I thought I'd just get up early and enjoy the scenery before we have to get going once again."

"I see… then again I heard you scream earlier and thought something else was wrong."

"Oh no… nothing is wrong Kakashi-sensei. I screamed because I felt something in my sleep bag and it turned out to be a squirrel. Nothing big! You don't have to worry about it! Anyway, I think I'm going to get something to eat and train a little bit before we get going!" Without allowing Kakashi to answer back, Naruto quickly got up from his spot and ran back towards camp leaving Kakashi to wonder what was up.

_"I know there's something up with Naruto. The way he answered me wasn't like him… I don't want to pester him about it since it might affect his performance on this mission. I'll let it go for now, but after the mission I'm going to confront him about it and if I don't, I'm sure Sakura is willing too."_

The rest of the day was spent traveling as Naruto and Sakura held up the back while Sasuke and Kakashi were in front. They jumped from tree to tree and from time to time Kakashi would look back at Naruto who seemed totally different as he idly chatted with Sakura and laughed at what she said. Sasuke seemed rather interested as he spoke up to Kakashi.

"If you don't mind me asking Kakashi-sensei, but why do you keep looking back at Naruto. Is something wrong with him?"

"I guess you could say in a way Sasuke, but this morning I heard Naruto scream out something and when I woke up to see what was the manner, he was gone and I found him at the base of the river sitting down. I don't know what it is, but he wouldn't talk to him about it and when I tried to ask him about it, he said it was nothing big and left. I'm not too sure what it is and he'll probably only talk about it to someone who's close to him."

"I'd probably confront him about it, but after what I did a few days ago, I doubt he'd even talk to me…"

Kakashi gave Sasuke a solemn smile as he kept jumping from branch to branch. "We don't need to go over this again Sasuke, it was your own fault, but if I know Naruto, I'm sure he's willing to forgive you for your actions"

Sasuke just nodded as he continued following Kakashi. Over the last few days the last Uchiha had time to think about what he had done to Naruto and although at first he felt great about picking on his teammate since he still harbored a grudge against him for what he did four years, that quickly turned sour when he saw the way Naruto reacted to his threats, but what really made him think twice about the way he was acting was the words Kakashi had said to him on the last day of training before leaving the village. _"That's low… even for you Sasuke."_

His words seemed to hit a chord with the Uchiha and he realized that he needed to drop this arrogance of his if he ever wanted to have friends and it was as good as any during this mission since they didn't know what would happen to them. Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted as Kakashi spoke up to all of them.

"All right everyone, let's take a short break and then we'll cover some more ground before setting up camp not too far from the target's location."

The rest of team seven nodded as they jumped down from the trees and proceeded to open their packs for a snack. There wasn't much chatter between them since they were deep within enemy territory. Sakura got up from her sitting position and wandered off into the forest. Sasuke saw this as his chance to talk to Naruto and took a seat next to him.

"Hey teme, you're sitting in Sakura-chan's spot, why don't you move?"

"Whatever dobe, I just want to take a moment of your time if it's not too much."

"Say whatever you need teme."

Sasuke took in a deep breath and exhaled before speaking to Naruto. "Listen Naruto… I'm not expecting you to forgive me for what I did a few days ago, but I'd just like to apologize for the way I acted. I know I usually act hostile towards you, but what I said and the thing I did was way out of line and I'm sorry if I hurt you in anyway… friends still?"

Sasuke extended out his hand in hopes that Naruto would forgive him for what he did and moments seemed to be hours as Naruto smiled back at Sasuke and shook his hand back.

"I accept your apology Sasuke and don't worry about it, I'm just glad you finally apologized."

"What? You're going to forgive me that easily? I thought for sure you'd stay mad at me for a while longer…"

"I said I forgive you teme and before you start questioning me on why I forgave you, it's the way I am. You should know that by now…"

Sasuke let out a rare smile as he finished shaking Naruto's hand and smirked on the inside of his mind. _"I suppose it is typical of you dobe…"_

As Naruto and Sasuke finished talking to each other Kakashi looked on with a smile on his face seeing what his students had done. _"They sure grow up fast don't they?"_

Kakashi then returned his attention to his Icha Icha Paradise and kept on reading until he felt a light tap on his shoulder and looked to see Sakura with a not too happy smile on her face, but at the same time she had a worried expression on her face.

"Honestly Kakashi-sensei, must you keep reading those books?"

"It's just a hobby Sakura, but what seems to be bothering you, you need to talk about it?"

"How'd you know something was bothering me Kakashi-sensei?"

"Your facial expression gave it away Sakura, but anyway what's bothering you?"

Sakura quickly looked over to Naruto and Sasuke to see that they were still talking and briefly smiled as she sat down near Kakashi. "I don't know if you've noticed either, but something seems to be wrong with Naruto and it concerns me. I tried to talk to him about it earlier, but he avoided any questions I tried to ask him. Did he tell you anything about what was bothering him earlier?"

"I'm afraid not Sakura, but earlier this morning I caught Naruto down by the river and he seemed rather jumpy when I confronted him. I tried talking to him about it too, but he did the same thing to me, but from what I gathered this morning he seemed to be sweating and that usually means the said person had a nightmare or suffering from something. My guess is that he had a real bad nightmare and he's trying to cover it up so we won't worry."

Sakura did her best to hold up her emotions in front of her sensei, but she was still having a hard time hiding them fully as a few stray tears escaped her face. "That baka… doesn't he trust us enough to let us know when something is wrong?"

Sakura was about to cry when she felt Kakashi put his hand on top of her shoulder and squeeze it gently as he spoke. "I don't think it's a matter of trust Sakura, but you know how Naruto is. He likes to keep things to himself and not make others worry. It's in his nature and I suppose he has a good reason since we're on a mission. Its best you don't confront him about it now, wait till later."

Sakura gave Kakashi a soft smile as she got up and walked back towards Naruto and Sasuke as Kakashi added in one last thing. "If anything, you're probably one of the few people Naruto will open up to the most since you both share such a strong bond."

After their conversations, Team Seven packed up their things and moved on towards their target which wasn't too much further and a few hours later they reached a clearing and Kakashi stopped them.

"According to what Jiraiya-sama's scout said, the hideout is about five more miles to the South. I'd said let's keep going, but we need to rest up and make sure we'll capable of dealing with a threat if one should arise when we get there. We'll sleep in tents tonight so if the enemy were to attack us, we'd at least have some protection so we can counterattack. No fires either okay?"

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke nodded as they began to set up camp and settled in for the night. Naruto was glad to be able to use the tents tonight since he figured no one would be able to see him wake up if his nightmares woke him up and just to make sure he sound proofed his tent. He was about to fall asleep when he heard a slight tap on his tent. He opened his tent slowly and saw that it was Sakura. He unzipped his tent the rest of the way and smiled at Sakura as she joined him in his tent. They both remained silent unsure of what to say to each other until Naruto spoke up.

"So what brings you here Sakura-chan? Were you lonely or something?"

"Not really Naruto, I came by because I wanted to talk about something and don't beat around the bush either Naruto. Kakashi-sensei told me about this morning, what gives?"

"Well, I… uh… it's really nothing Sakura-chan. It was just a squirrel in my sleeping bag-"

"DON'T LIE TO ME!"

Naruto was shocked by Sakura's sudden outburst and saw that she was beginning to cry. Naruto moved in closer to Sakura and wrapped her in an embrace hoping to calm her down. "There's no reason for you to cry Sakura-chan…"

"Why Naruto, Why do you keep hiding things from us? Don't you trust us enough to tell us when something is wrong?"

Naruto knew exactly what Sakura was talking about and it always hurt his heart seeing her cry like this and he felt guilty for hiding things from his teammates, especially Sakura, but now that they were in a relationship, he needed to stop lying to her and be honest with her. He held up Sakura's head and looked into her tear stained eyes while shedding a few tears of his own. "I'm sorry Sakura-chan… I never meant to hide things from any of you especially after what we shared a few days ago and I also promised you that I'd be more truthful… so here's what exactly happened."

Naruto went on to explain his dream to Sakura and her reaction was what he expected utterly shocked. "My god Naruto… your dream sounded so horrible."

"It felt so real Sakura-chan… like it could happen."

Naruto shivered at the thought of the dream and felt like he was going to breakdown in front of Sakura, but she pulled him into a hug and gently kissed him on the lips.

"It may have felt real Naruto, but it won't happen because we have each other."

Naruto softly smiled back at Sakura as he returned the kiss and looked into her eyes. "You know something Sakura-chan, I've admitted my love for you in front of your mother, but I never did get a chance to tell you how much I love you."

"I love you too Naruto…"

They kissed each other once more on the lips and it grew from passion to need as Naruto gently laid Sakura down on his sleeping bag and it wasn't too long before the both of them were unclothed. They made love to each other for the preempted time. They felt their climaxes hit and shuttered in the aftermath of their love making falling asleep in each other's arms. Sakura gently played with some of Naruto's hair before sleep finally claimed her and as she drifted off to sleep her body felt different, like it was going through a change. She didn't think much of it as it faded away and she thought it had something to do with her body reacting normally to her climax.

It only seemed like a few hours after they had fallen asleep and Sakura was suddenly awoken by voices and she opened her eyes to see that Naruto wasn't next to her. She peered outside the tent and saw that Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi were engaged in combat with enemies. She hastily threw on her clothes and withdrew a kunai from her pack as she raced to join her teammates.

"It seems as though the welcoming party is here…"


	12. For Endless Fight

Many questions raced through Sakura's mind as she raced towards her other teammates who were struggling against their unknown attackers. One of them was about to hit Naruto from his blind spot and Sakura immediately reacted. She pushed chakra into her legs to go faster and just before the shinobi was about to connect with Naruto's back, Sakura had landed an uppercut to his face, making him reel for a moment and it was just the opening Sakura needed to slit his throat. Blood gushed from the open wound as he fell to the ground.

Naruto turned around at the sound of the falling body and gave a brief smile to Sakura before turning his attention back to the shinobi he was fighting. Sakura joined Naruto back to back as the both of them defended each other from the attacks of the rouge-ninja. They were able to get in a few words while the fighting continued.

"Do you have any idea who these guys are Naruto?"

Naruto couldn't answer back right away as one of the shinobi had him pinned down, but thanks to a well-placed shadow clone, he fooled him into thinking he got the real one and using the distraction to his advantage Naruto was able to kick the enemy in the gut and deliver a fatal blow to his throat via a kunai. Naruto smirked at his handy work and finally answered Sakura back. "I wish I knew Sakura-chan. One moment I was sleeping peacefully with you and the next I heard Kakashi yell out to me that enemies were here. I threw on my clothes and joined them."

"Well, why didn't you wake me up so I could help?"

"It's not like I had a choice Sakura-chan. I thought you heard him too…"

"I guess not…" Before either one of them could respond, a kunai hit the ground next to them that had a tag on it and Naruto was too busy fighting another enemy to notice it. Sakura yelled out at the top of her lungs. "Shit! An explosive tag! Look out Naruto!"

Naruto barely had time to react and did the best thing he knew. He delivered a hard punch to his enemy's gut and held them in front of him to use as a shield. The explosive tag went off and sent both Naruto and his human shield into a tree. Naruto could hear a sickening crack as he felt something force itself into his gut and he could only guess that some of his ribs had cracked from the impact against the tree and with the added weight of his now charred human shield probably didn't help matters. He coughed up some blood as his cracked ribs forced themselves deeper into his stomach as he tried to get up, but the intense pain forced him down. Naruto could taste blood in his mouth and his vision started to blur and it wasn't long before his eyes closed.

Kakashi had been fighting a few of the other shinobi avoiding their attacks thanks in part to his sharingan. He heard the explosion and turned around just in time to see Naruto get impacted against the tree. He was about to rush to his student's aid when a few more shinobi blocked his path.

"You guys are getting quite annoying and I think it's about time I stopped playing around." Kakashi then raised his headband revealing his sharingan as he stared at his attackers angrily. "I suggest you get out my way or else I'll just have to make one…"

The enemy shinbone just grinned at Kakashi as they withdrew more kunai from their pouches making him chuckle a bit.

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you…" With a quickness that wasn't seen since the Fourth Hokage, Kakashi cut down the enemy shinobi and many of them were left standing wondering what happened before they were silenced with a slice to the throat. Kakashi didn't bother to look back at his handy work as he quickly made his way to Naruto's unconscious form. He saw one of the shinobi had managed to slip past him and they were about to attack Naruto. "I don't think so!"

Kakashi took aim with his kunai and managed to pin Naruto's attacker to the tree just mere inches from him. Kakashi figured he needed one of them alive so he could interrogate them on who sent them, but he had a good idea. The enemy ninja struggled to remove the kunai from his hand and Kakashi swiftly kicked him in the gut. "Save it pal we'll need you later…"

Kakashi bent down gently picking up Naruto's unconscious form making sure not to injury him any further since his uncovered sharingan gave him a sort of sixth sense and he could tell where Naruto was injured. He laid him down on the ground and waited for Sakura and Sasuke to rejoin him. "Poor Naruto…It's his first mission in four years and he ends up getting injured. I hope this isn't a sign of bad luck for him."

Sakura had been knocked back by the blast and the dust and dirt made it hard to see. Ignoring the ringing in her ears Sakura withdrew a kunai and held her ground as she figured there would be an enemy not too far behind and she didn't have to wait long as a shadow jumped towards her and threw three kunai at her which she dodged easily, but somehow the enemy had used her moment to dodge as an advantage as they grabbed her by her hands and pinned them behind her. The next thing she knew they had a kunai pointed to her throat.

"That was some nice moves, but you left yourself open…"

Sakura just smirked as she answered back. "That may be true, but you've still left yourself open behind!"

Sakura easily broke the person's hold and shoved them to the ground where she was about to deliver the killing blow when she stopped. She recognized the red glowing pinwheel shaped eyes of her enemy.

"Sasuke?"

"Sakura?"

Sakura withdrew the kunai from Sasuke's neck and put it back in her pouch. She offered a hand to Sasuke who gladly took it and after he was up he dusted himself off and smirked at Sakura.

"I've got to say Sakura; you've improved after four years"

Sakura smirked back and dusted herself off a bit. "Well, training under one of the three legendary Sanin does have its advantages."

Before they could continue to chat three more enemies attacked them from behind, but Sakura and Sasuke were ready for them as Sakura kneed one in his balls making him instantly cower over. She finished the job by using some of her chakra enhanced strength to snap his neck while the other two shinobi attacked Sasuke head on. They threw their best attacks at him, but he easily dodged him and quickly made a few hand signs.

"Grand Fireball Justu!"

The shinobi didn't have time to react as the fireball consumed them leaving nothing behind but two charred corpses. Sasuke turned to see Sakura who had been watching his little show and gave her a little wink as he landed a few feet from her.

"Show off…"

During the fight Sakura had almost forgoten about Naruto but something alerted her that he was in trouble. She didn't say anything to Sasuke and ran off towards Naruto's location with Sasuke in tow. It didn't take them long to find Naruto and they were happy to see Kakashi standing in front of him. Sakura softly smiled at Kakashi as she approached him. "Kakashi-sensei what happened to Naruto?"

"I'm not too sure Sakura, but it seems like he was caught in an explosion."

"Dammit! That tag must have done more damage to him then I thought, but how could it do that much damage to him?"

Kakashi pointed towards the charred corpse that Naruto had used as a shield. "My guess is that the force from the impact didn't hurt him that much, but when his little shield hit him afterwards, that's what did the real damage."

Sakura just nodded as she gently pushed Kakashi aside and went to work on healing Naruto. Her hands glowed a bright green as they healed his cracked ribs and any other internal or external damage that he might have gotten from the explosive tag. Kakashi and Sasuke looked on in awe at how fast Sakura was healing Naruto.

"That's some powerful healing wouldn't you say Kakashi-sensei."

"Yes, it is and from what I've seen of Sakura I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of her punches either…"

The both of them shared a quick chuckle before Sasuke turned his attention to the knocked out shinobi that was tied up. "Hey Kakashi-sensei, what do you plan on doing with that guy?"

"I plan on doing a little interrogation to see if he'll tell us who send him."

"Do you really think he's going to talk?"

Kakashi smirked as his sharingan flared brighter. "I wouldn't worry about that Sasuke… I've learned a few things from Anko that will make him talk."

**Hours later…**

Naruto felt his head spinning as he opened his eyes slowly and saw that he was back in his tent. He sat up and tried to get out of his tent, but he fell back down on his sleeping bag much to his confusion. He heard a laugh as someone spoke up to him.

"Take it easy Naruto, you're still recovering from a mild concussion you suffered from our little fight."

"The battle… what happened, Kakashi-sensei? Where's Sasuke and Sakura-chan? Are they okay or did they…"

"Don't worry about it Naruto, we took care of our little enemy problem and Sasuke and Sakura are just fine. They're having a little talk right about what we found out from our friend."

"Found out?"

"Yeah, I was able to persuade one of the shinobi to talk and he told me everything. Apparently they were sent by Orochimaru as his advanced scouting parity since he had a feeling that he'd be expecting trouble. If you're feeling better, we were just talking about what strategy we'll take when we get to his hideout."

Naruto smiled as he slowly got out of his sleeping bag and joined the others around the fire to discuss what they were going to do.

**Miles away from Team Seven's location…**

"You fool! Now they know what to expect from us!"

The shinobi that Kakashi had interrogated stood before a very pissed off Orochimaru and he wished to be tied up again and tortured by Kakashi since it wasn't as bad as the sanin berating him for royalty screwing up. His meager thoughts were interrupted as Orochimaru yelled at him.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"I… uh… I'm sorry?"

Before he had a chance to say anymore Orochimaru had launched his serpent sword at him impaling him right through his heart. He began to cough up some blood and it wasn't long before he began to bleed profusely leaving a rather large puddle on the ground as he collapsed moments later. Orochimaru smirked as he got up and walked over to the now lifeless corpse of his subordinate withdrawing his sword and licked the blood clean.

"So what do we do now Orochimaru-sama?"

Orochimaru turned his head to see a sliver haired man with glasses smiling at him and he returned it. "It's quite simple Kabuto… we wait for our guests to come to us…"

**Back with Team Seven**

Not too long after agreeing upon their strategy on what to do with Orochimaru, Team Seven made their way towards his hideout as they remained on guard for more enemies. Kakashi and Sasuke held up the front while Naruto and Sakura brought up the rear. It gave them a little time to talk among themselves before having to face perhaps one of their biggest challenges since becoming shinobi.

"Hey Naruto…"

Naruto turned his attention to Sakura who in turn gave him a soft smile as he answered back. "What's up Sakura-chan?"

"I was wondering and you don't have to answer this if you don't want too, but what do you plan on doing once this mission is done?"

"I'm not too sure Sakura-chan. I want to focus my efforts on finally becoming Hokage, but there's just one little problem…"

"What problem is that Naruto?"

Naruto's blushed a few shades of red before answering back in a soft tone so Sasuke and Kakashi wouldn't hear. "What am I supposed to do about you? I mean I never thought we'd actually be together and that makes things more interesting now…"

"What are you getting at Naruto?"

"I'm just saying that after this mission is done, we can further explore our relationship. I want it to be something more Sakura-chan, but now is not the time. Let's talk about it once we get home."

Sakura knew exactly what Naruto was talking about and nodded her head. She felt her heart do a few cartwheels at his mention of it being something more and for a moment let herself imagine what life would be like with Naruto. Her little day dream didn't last long as Kakashi's voice broke her from her thoughts.

"All right guys, we're almost to the entrance. Be on the lookout."

The other members of Team Seven nodded their heads withdrawing kunai from their pouches as they expected to meet resistance, but for some reason it was rather quiet. They stopped for a moment to wait for Kakashi's command and he waved his hand in a manner they understand. They entered the lair of the snake quietly and hoped to root him out and finally put an end to the reign of terror he had inflicted upon the nations.

Team seven had entered Orochimaru's hideout expecting to fight, but the place had been virtually quiet and there was no one in sight. The low light of the candles that littered the hall they were walking down didn't make it easy to see and they had to rely on their senses to guide them.

"I don't like this one bit… I thought for sure there would be some more resistance. It's almost as if Orochimaru is expecting us…"

"I wouldn't worry about it Kakashi-sensei. If anything we wiped out what was left of Orochimaru's pathetic little resistance and he's probably turned tail, hiding away from us like any snake would."

"I hope you're right about that Sasuke…"

Team seven walked in a single line since the halls were too narrow to walk in twos. The hall they were walking down seemed to take forever and just when Naruto was about to complain about it taking forever the candles that lit their way suddenly went out blanketing them in complete darkness. The team instantly reacted by holding up their kunai and expected someone to attack them from the dark, but nothing like that came and instead they were dragged forward by an unseen force.

They were forcefully thrown to the ground and only had moments to recover when a barrage of kunai came at them, missing all of them by a few inches. Once they gathered their surroundings, team seven saw that they were now within a large room, big enough for them to fight in. A laugh greeted them and it seemed to come from everywhere.

"Stop being a coward and show yourself!"

The laugh seemed to acknowledge Naruto and the shadows seemed to melt away revealing two figures standing a ways from them as the first voice spoke to them. "Well, well if it isn't team seven, I thought your Hokage would have sent a much better team, like members of ANBU, but after rooting out Jiraiya's little spy I expected it to be someone who knew me…"

"Orochimaru…"

The sanin smirked as he stood aside to allow Kabuto to come forward and add in some words of his own. "It's not all that bad Orochimaru-sama. Once we're done with them, I can use Sasuke-kun's body for experiments and the nine tails will make an excellent addition to my collection of dead bodies for you to use. As for the copy-ninja and Princess Tsunade's little student they`re better off dead since they would serve no purpose," said Kabuto.

Before Kabuto had a chance to react a kunai had been thrown his way but he caught it before it hit him. The kunai though had sractched Orochimaru's face much to his surprise and he turned to see Naruto had been the one to throw the kunai at him and kabuto and his eyes were silted, but still blue.

"Don't you dare talk about my friends like that you sick freak!"

"Freak What about you? I wouldn't exactly say your normal Naruto-kun."

Naruto's anger got the better of him and he quickly formed a rasengan in his hand and charged forward. Orochimaru just smirked at Naruto as he easily dodged the rasengan and it ended up destroying some of the wall. The others watched on before Sakura spoke out.

"Naruto! Stop! Orochimaru is trying to goad you into fighting him. You need to calm down."

Naruto stopped pursuing Orochimaru and turned his attention towards Sakura as his eyes went back to their natural blue color without the slits. He smiled at Sakura and began walking over to rejoin his team so they could work their strategy out, but stopped suddenly when he felt something impale him. He looked down to see that Orochimaru's sword had gone right through his shoulder and barely missed his heart.

"NARUTO!"

Naruto fell to the floor with a thud and a small stream of blood began to settle on the ground. Sakura immediately rushed forward and tried to get to Naruto, but found her way blocked as Kabuto made a few hand signs and formed a chakra blade. Sakura dodged his attacks and while asking the medic what had happened to Naruto.

"You bastards, what did you do to Naruto?"

Kabuto smirked while he swiping his chakra blade at Sakura. "It's quite simple my dear, we divide and conquer. We start with the strongest of you all and that was Naruto-kun since he has the nine tails in his body, but since Orochimaru-sama has expressed interest in him he coated his serpent sword in a special kind of poison that paralyzes the body so the victim won't be able to move for quite some time and it also blocks them from molding chakra. It's the perfect weapon I must say and now that I've told you enough, it's time for you to die!"

Kabuto swung his chakra blade once more at Sakura and this time he connected, but to his horror Sakura had caught the chakra blade before it struck her. Sakura smirked at Kabuto as she gathered chakra in her free hand.

"That was a dirty underhanded trick you did to Naruto, but I'm more than capable of those myself, so why don't you kiss your ass goodbye Kabuto!" Sakura drew Kabuto in closer and with one mighty chakra enhanced punch she shattered his skull. Blood flowed from his nose but Sakura turned her attention towards a very surprised Orochimaru, Sasuke, and Kakashi who were engaged in battle.

"You should have hired better help Orochimaru, because your little lackey is dead and now I'm coming after you!" Sakura carelessly flung Kabuto's body to the side and charged at Orochimaru who barely dodged her chakra enhanced punch. Sasuke and Kakashi could only look on in awe at what Sakura had just done and they hadn't even battled for that long.

"Holy crap, I can't believe it… Sakura just defeated Kabuto."

"Well, that's a good thing because I'm not about to let her have all the fun." Sasuke jumped back in the fight and did his best to help out Sakura while Kakashi looked at Kabuto's now lifeless corpse.

_"You've improved so much over the years Sakura. I think it's safe to say you've surpassed what Tsunade could do. I'm sure she'd be proud of you too or is your new found power boost because of what happened to Naruto? I guess it's better not to question it right now since you could use some help."_

Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi did their best to fight against Orochimaru, but no matter what attacks they threw against him, he always seemed to have a way to counter them and as the battle continued all three of them started to get low on chakra. Sakura needed to converse her chakra the most since she needed to heal Naruto once they were done. Her attacks started to get desperate and she glanced for a moment at Naruto and it was all that Orochimaru needed to hit her.

He sent her flying backwards into the wall where Naruto was and the impact knocked her out cold. Just before getting knocked out, Sakura let out a soft yell in hopes it would be enough to wake Naruto up. It seemed to work as he opened his eyes slowly and saw Sakura not too far from him unconscious. His emotions started to get the better of him as the Kyuubi started taking over. His eyes turned blood red with silts as he slowly got up. The others sensed the sudden spike of power and turned around to see Naruto slowly walking towards them.

They actually stopped fighting and Sasuke and Kakashi took this moment to retreat and join Naruto who stopped just a few yards from Orochimaru as the Kyuubi's chakra flowed freely from him.

"Naruto, but how? I heard Kabuto say that the poison was supposed to stop anyone in their tracks dead…"

Naruto didn't bother to look at Sasuke as he answered back. **"You should know the Kyuubi's chakra affords me super healing, so Orochimaru's little poison didn't work on me that well and now it's time I paid him back for pulling that dirty underhanded trick and for hurting Sakura-chan."**

"How are we going to stop him? None of our attacks work on him."

"**Don't worry about that, I've got it handled."**

Sasuke and Kakashi were about to question Naruto on what he was planning to do, but suddenly they found themselves attacked by a small amount of the Kyuubi's chakra that made them pass out. Naruto looked at the now unconscious bodies of his teammates and softly smiled at them.

"**I'm sorry guys, but I don't think I'll survive this. Please take care of Sakura-chan for me…"** Naruto turned his attention back to Orochimaru who still had a look of horror in his eyes.

"It's impossible! That poison should have knocked you out and put you in a coma!"

"**Well, too bad it didn't because it's time for you to pay for what you've done!"**

Naruto made the hand sign for his kage bushin and two other clones popped into existence and stood at his side and began forming a rasengan while the other clone did something else and eventually the rasengan gained more mass and became a spinning blade. The other clones disappeared once the attack was formed and Naruto held it out in front of him. **"I think it's about time I introduce you to my strongest attack Orochimaru, the rasenshuriken!"**

"I don't care what type of attack you use against me boy! It's not going to work!" Orochimaru shoved his hands into the ground and summoned his shadow serpents to attack Naruto from the ground below, but as soon as they got within range of Naruto, they burnt up because of the Kyuubi's chakra. Naruto smirked as he used the Kyuubi's chakra to cover the distance between them and he forcefully shoved the rasenshuriken in Orochimaru's chest and held it there cutingt the sanin, but he wasn't out of tricks just yet for he had summoned his serpent sword and shoved it into Naruto's gut forcing his chakra into it.

"If I go, I'm taking you with me, to hell!" A large shock wave engulfed the both of them and the walls around them began to crumble and the unconscious members of team seven were pushed back by the shock wave.

**Unknown hours later…**

Sasuke was the first to awake as sunshine hit his face. He didn't remember being outside and quickly got to his feet the best he could. He looked around to see the carnage before him. The room they were in was in ruins and it seemed as though the roof had collapsed somehow overheard and allowed the last remnants of daylight to show through. He immediately looked to see if everyone else was okay and saw that Sakura and Kakashi were still unconscious.

He still remembered what had happened before he passed out and began looking around to see if there was any sign of Naruto, but he couldn't see another body. Suddenly his attention was drawn to something that the sunlight reflected off of and ran over to it. It was Naruto's headband and it was torn, metal was buckled and dried blood caked onto it. For once in his life Sasuke Uchiha actually felt like crying, but he didn't, he just fell to his knees and looked at the headband again and whispered to it. "Naruto you selfless bastard… why?"


	13. The Cost Of Victory

Sakura began to stir opening her eyes slowly until the sudden brightness of wherever she was forced them closed, but only for a brief moment before finally adjusting to the new light source. The constant beeping of the machine besides her instantly gave away where she was.

"I'm in the hospital, but how?" Suddenly Sakura remembered that they fought against Orochimaru and she had gained the upper hand on the sanin before he was forced to make a desperate attack knocking her out cold. Her memory was fuzzy and she didn't exactly remember what happened after that. Sakura decided to go see if perhaps Sasuke, Kakashi or Naruto were around to give her the answers and as she got out of her bed, Sakura instantly fell to the floor and let out a yelp of pain. A nurse heard Sakura's yelp and came in to investigate.

"Haruno-san! You mustn't try to walk right now!" The nurse helped Sakura back into her bed and once she was done, she gave Sakura a soft smile before continuing. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions Haruno-san. I'll send a messenger to alert the Hokage that you're awake now."

Sakura returned the smile and began to speak herself. "Thanks, but if it's not too much trouble can you tell me why I wasn't able to stand as soon as I tried to get out of bed?"

"Well, Haruno-san… you see on your last mission you were brought here to the hospital in terrible condition. The injuries you suffered may have not been visible, but that hit you took against the pillar according to what we gathered from your sensei cracked multiple parts of your ribs and you were internally bleeding, you also suffered a concussion and your spine is very tender right now, hence why you can't walk right now. You'll be good within a few days."

Sakura remained silent for a few moments taking in what the nurse had just told her. "Wow… I didn't think I was that injured, but anyway how long have I been out?"

"You've been out for about three days now Haruno-san…"

"I see… any chance my teammates are here in the hospital too?"

"If I remember right, we treated Sasuke Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake for minor injuries and they were allowed to go home with medical leave two days ago."

Sakura felt her heart stop suddenly when the nurse didn't mention Naruto's name, but then again he was probably already home and thanks to the Kyuubi he didn't need as much healing as the others did. Then again if Naruto wasn't in the hospital he surely would have come to visit Sakura or perhaps she wasn't allowed visitors because of her condition. She didn't think much of it right now as Tsunade walked in right when Sakura was about to ask the nurse something else.

The nurse nodded to Tsunade and silently closed the door behind them. Tsunade remained silent and turned her attention towards the now conscious Sakura who stared at her confused. Suddenly she found herself pulled into a hug by Tsunade who finally spoke up.

"Sakura! You're finally awake! I didn't think you'd actually wake up so soon!"

"Wake up so soon? What do you mean shishou?"

Tsunade pulled Sakura from their hug and looked at her with tears in her eyes. "The nurses said thanks to the concussion you'd probably remain unconscious for at least a month or so. I was furious with them and told them my student will wake up within a few days and sure enough you did. I'm glad…"

Tsunade didn't finish her sentence since her emotions got the best of her and she began crying, showing no shame in front of Sakura who in turn smiled and returned the hug to her master. They remained like that for a few moments before Sakura asked something.

"Shishou before you came in the nurse told me that they only treated Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei. She didn't even mention treating Naruto. Is he in the hospital or is he at home resting?"

Tsunade froze up at Sakura's question and didn't say anything or move, it made Sakura rather nervous and had her wondering if she had said something wrong. Tsunade's mind on the other hand was trying to think of a way to explain to Sakura what had happened to Naruto and his unfortunate fate. It had only been three days since team seven had come home, but the events of what happened were still fresh on Tsunade's mind.

**Flashback to three days earlier**

_Kakashi and Sasuke walked in silence as he carried the still unconscious Sakura on his back. Sasuke was glad that Sakura still out, if she knew of what happened to Naruto, she would surely be out of control, wanting to search the place over and over again until they found any sign of Naruto. They had combed over the whole area and found no trace of Naruto, it was like he had vanished and with the rubble blocking any evidence, it would be hard for them to continue the search._

_With a heavy sigh and tears threatening to spill from their eyes Sasuke and Kakashi had left Orochimaru's hideout behind taking with them the dead body of Kabuto and what remained of Orochimaru as evidence of their mission going well, but unfortunately the cost of their victory was high._

_They entered the Hokage's office silently and Tsunade looked at them curiously noticing Sakura's unconscious form on Sasuke's back. She waved Sasuke over to her where he gently put Sakura on the couch and Tsunade went into medic mode scanning Sakura's body for any signs of injury. Sasuke and Kakashi watched on as she made a few gestures and a member of ANBU appeared before her who nodded as Tsunade told him to bring Sakura to the hospital. Once that was taken care of Tsunade turned her attention towards the two remaining members of team seven and immediately noticed Naruto wasn't with them._

"_Where's Naruto?_"

_Sasuke and kakashi didn't answer back; they held their heads down making Tsunade rather mad._

"_Don't give me the silent treatment you two! Where in the hell is Naruto? If he's playing some sort of sick joke on me and he got you two involved, you better speak up right now before I get even more pissed than I am._"

_Still there was no answer from either of them. Sasuke looked at Kakashi who nodded to him and he pulled out Naruto's headband showing it to Tsunade. She took the headband off Sasuke and looked it over before starting to laugh._

"_Ha! Ha! That's a good joke boys but I'm not falling for it! Naruto if you're hiding somewhere you better come out now!_"

_No one answered and Tsunade started to get worried as she glanced once more at Sasuke and Kakashi who had not moved since they came into her office. She noticed how the both of them were holding back tears and usually a joke would never involve that sort of thing. All the pieces were starting to fit together and at first Tsunade tried to deny it, but after looking at the headband once more and noticing just how realistic the blood looked, there was no denying it._ "_He's… he's dead?_"

_They nodded their heads and before they could react Tsunade had grabbed them by the fabric of their vests and shoved them into the nearest wall. Her face was full of anger, but mostly sadness as she __spoke._ "_How in the hell could you let him die? What the fuck were the both of you doing? Did you have your finger up your ass or something? Answer me god dammit!_"

_Tsunade squeezed tighter and began choking them but Kakashi was able to get out a few words._ "_Hokage-sama… it's not our fault. Believe me… I would have let myself die before Naruto._"

"_Kakashi-sensei is telling the truth Hokage-sama. We tried to stop Naruto, but he stopped us from helping him… he forced some of the Kyuubi's chakra into us and it knocked us unconscious and when we woke up… he was gone._"

_Tsunade lessened her grip on the both of them, her emotions got the better of her so she let go of both of them and turned her head so they wouldn't see her._ "_I'm sorry for the way I acted… it was uncharacteristic of me… you're excused for now, but I expect the both of you to be back here in the morning and give me a full report on what happened._"

_Sasuke and kakashi nervously nodded their heads and walked out of the office leaving Tsunade alone as she walked back to her chair and slumped in it, tears flowing freely from her eyes as she looked at Naruto's tattered headband. _"_Naruto why? Why would you do this? You still had so much to live for… you were supposed to become Hokage after me._" _Tsunade clutched his headband closer to her chest as she continued crying._

_**End Flashback**_

Tsunade's thoughts were interrupted as she felt Sakura lightly tap her on the shoulder.

"Shishou? Is everything okay?"

"No, not really Sakura… there's something I need to talk to you about and it pertains to Naruto."

"What happened? Is something wrong with him?"

"No, not exactly…" Tsunade wasn't sure how to put this into words and she didn't know how Sakura would react, but she had the right to know. Tsunade gently put her hands of Sakura's shoulders and tried to hold back her tears as she began talking. "I'm not sure how to tell you Sakura… Naruto… he… didn't make it back with the rest of team seven. He was killed while on the last mission when you were unconscious…" Tsunade closed her eyes and expected Sakura to react right away, but much to her surprise Sakura began to laugh at what she said.

"You must be joking right shishou? I mean did Naruto put you up to this or something?"

"It's no joke Sakura… Naruto is dead."

Tsunade reached into her pocket and pulled out his tattered headband for Sakura too see. She looked over it carefully like Tsunade had done and despite the now dried blood; Sakura could tell it was Naruto's. She felt tears start to well up in her eyes and she denied it at first. "This is part of the joke right shishou?"

Tsunade didn't answer back as she pulled Sakura into an embrace and felt her start to cry. She still wanted to deny that Naruto was dead and somehow he was still alive, but the headband convinced her that it was real and he was dead. Sakura returned Tsunade's hug and allowed tears of her own to flow free as she spoke.

"No! No! This can't be happening! Naruto can't be dead; this has to be some sort of bad dream!"

Sakura's grip on Tsunade tightened as her crying intensified and Tsunade did her best to comfort Sakura in her time of need. It reminded her so much of what happened to Dan, but she couldn't dwell on the past, she needed to move on and remain strong for everyone around her, especially Sakura since she would need her more than ever.

**Two months later**

A lot of things had changed since Naruto's death two months ago and it was only last month when Tsunade couldn't put it off any longer and finally announced Naruto's death to the village. The reaction was expected as some of the villagers celebrated his death while others actually cried for him. A week later a private ceremony was held for Naruto as his name and headband were added to the long list of those that had died in battle protecting the village. The whole of the rookie twelve had a hard time keeping their emotions in check as Naruto's name was finally engraved into the stone.

Sakura had stayed behind the longest and everyone had tried their best to talk to her, but she wouldn't answer them back. She had grown more distant in the last two months and her friends had tried their best to break her from her depression, but she just wouldn't give in. She had taken Naruto's death the worst along with Jiraiya who had yet to visit the village in the last two months since the news of his student's death reached him. He had spent the last two months looking for Naruto and wouldn't give up until he found him.

Once Sakura was done paying her respects, she headed back to Naruto's old apartment which she had refused to move out of since it gave her some sense that he was still alive. As she continued walking a voice from behind her called out to her.

"Sakura!"

Sakura turned around to see Sasuke walking up to her and as much as Sakura wanted to ditch him she felt somewhat glad to see Sasuke and gave him a soft smile as he approached. "Sasuke, it's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too Sakura… I was wondering if you wanted to get something to eat."

"That sounds like a tempting offer Sasuke, but I'm not feeling hungry right now, maybe some other time?"

"I knew you'd probably say something like that Sakura. I'm not going to try and convince you like I always do, but promise me next time you'll actually get something to eat with me?"

Sakura smiled at Sasuke as she answered back. "It's a promise Sasuke."

They talked for a few more moments before saying their goodbyes to each other and it made Sakura feel somewhat better finally talking to someone. She reached the apartment and walking in it always felt so empty. She wished that Naruto was still alive so he could greet her and tell her how much he loved her. She let a few tears escape her eyes as she thought about it. Sakura then proceeded to do her daily ritual of finding something to eat for dinner, but for some reason she just didn't feel like eating. She decided to go take a shower and call it a day when she suddenly felt dizzy. Next thing Sakura knew she had passed out in the living room.

Sakura awoke to find herself in some place that wasn't the apartment living room and looked around. It carried on for thousands of miles with no end in sight and it made her feel rather nervous. Sakura spoke up hoping that perhaps someone would hear her. "Hello! Is anybody here?"

"Right behind you…" a voice answered.

Sakura turned around to see who answered her and she nearly jumped ten feet in the air at who she saw. It wasn't anyone she recognized, but for some reason the way the person smiled at her was welcoming. Before answering the person back Sakura got a good look at the person. It was a woman not much taller than her and she had the brightest blue eyes like Naruto, but her most striking feature was her red hair which had grown down to her ankles. "I don't want to sound hostile, but who exactly are you?"

The red hair woman smiled at Sakura before answering back. "I suppose I owe you that much… my name is Kushina Uzumaki, mother of Naruto Uzumaki and wife to the Fourth Hokage and you must be Sakura Haruno right?"

"How do you know who I am?"

"Despite being dead I've always watched over my son and I know about those closest to him and you're one of those people Sakura. My son has always loved you and I'm glad that you returned his feelings. I couldn't have asked for a better person. You remind me a lot of myself."

"Okay… I get the part about you watching Naruto Kushina, but how are you exactly talking to me when you're supposed to be dead?"

Kushina laughed as she approached Sakura and gently put both of her hands on Sakura's stomach. "Well, I also have ways of talking to those who are of Uzumaki descent by tapping into their special chakra and using it to project an image of myself."

Sakura remembered Tsunade talking about how the Uzumaki clan was known for having special chakra and how Kushina was kidnapped for it, but it still didn't answer her question. "I remember hearing of the Uzumaki clan having special chakra, but just how do I fit into this Kushina?"

"Haven't you already guessed by now Sakura? The reason I put both of my hands on your stomach…"

Sakura thought about what Kushina said and just when she was about to answer, she gasped realizing what Kushina was exactly talking about. "You mean… I'm pregnant?"

Kushina just nodded as she withdrew her hands from Sakura's stomach and smiled at her. "Yes, Sakura, you carry the next line of the Uzumaki within you, that's how I was able to communicate with you via your unborn child's special chakra, but it seems as though you have the Uzumaki's special chakra within your body too."

"I carry the Uzumaki's special chakra within me? How? I thought those born of Uzumaki descent only have it?"

"That's usually the case, but there are rare occasions where the chakra can be transferred to other people via blood, bodily fluids, or sometimes even sex."

Sakura's face flushed red at the mention of sex and she quickly buried those thoughts as she remembered feeling somewhat strange the night they had sex before confronting Orochimaru's forces. Could it be that her body had absorbed some of the chakra because of their sexual activities? It was the only explanation.

"Kushina, now that I think about it, I remember feeling strange when Naruto released inside of me… I thought it was just a normal reaction after having sex, but the more I think about it, the more your theory of my body absorbing the chakra makes sense…"

"I wish I had more answers for you Sakura, but I feel as though my time is growing short since your chakra is running low. I'm sorry for dragging you into your own mind, but I just wanted to talk to the person my son loves so much. Minato and I would be proud to call you our daughter-in-law…"

Kushina didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as her spirit started to fade and dissipate and she smiled at Sakura who asked her one last question.

"Kushina can you tell me if Naruto is truly dead?"

"I do not know Sakura… I'm only a projection of the real Kushina… I wish I could tell you."

Before Sakura got a chance to answer back she found herself coming too and opened her eyes to see that she was back in the apartment on her couch. She slowly got up and put a hand to her stomach. Sakura was still shocked by the revelation that she was pregnant, but at the same time it gave her a bit of happiness knowing that if Naruto truly was dead, he'd at least live on in spirit within his child.


	14. Heaven Unexpected

**Author's Note: I'd like to take a moment and thank each and every one that's left a review and favorite **_**Reflections. **_**Your continued support of the story has given me the drive to keep this story going and although it started out rocky, the story picked up nicely and I feel as though the story will be finished by next chapter. I've really enjoyed working on this story and I thank everyone once again for the support.**

Sakura tossed and turned in her sleep. Although her body was extremely tired from today, her conscious wouldn't allow her to get any sleep as her mind kept replaying a dream she'd been having for the past week.

**Sakura's Dreamscape**

_It was the beginning of spring and it had been six months since Naruto's apparent death. It still weighed heavily on Sakura's heart and each day she would go through work like a zombie, taking orders and never talking back. It made her co-workers at the hospital concerned, but anytime they tried to talk to her, she would just walk the other way and ignore their shouts of trying to get her attention. Lately though Sakura had not been working at the hospital due to her pregnancy, she was already five and a half months pregnant and needed a break almost every hour so her chakra would regain itself. The baby was making it that much harder for her to work and Tsunade decided to let her have a leave of absence until she gave birth and recovered afterwards._

_She laid a hand on her now protruding stomach and sighed._ "_I really wish you could be here Naruto… your unborn child needs you. It's going to be difficult to raise him or her by myself… please comeback to me._"

_Sakura walked over to the railing of the apartment and started crying, trying to keep it low so the other tenants wouldn't hear her. She stayed like that for an unknown number of hours until she realized it was nighttime and it was still cold despite being spring. Sakura gathered herself and headed inside when a voice from below stopped her dead in her tracks._

"_Sakura-chan!_"

_Sakura recognized that voice anywhere and no one else would dare call her that. She hurried back towards the edge of the railing and looked down to see someone standing there. His features were hidden by a traveling cloak, but his distinctive blue eyes gave him away as he walked up the side of the railing and stood right in front of Sakura. He stood there for a moment before throwing off his hood to __reveal his blonde unruly hair which was longer and unkempt. Sakura felt like time had just stopped as she looked at Naruto. He was alive and well, standing before her with his trademark smile. Tears immediately welled up in Sakura's eyes as she instinctively rushed forward into Naruto's arms and cried her eyes out, letting everything out from the last six months._

_Naruto softly smiled as he wrapped his arms around Sakura and rocked her back and forth, comforting her as best he could._

"_I'm sorry Sakura-chan… I know it must have been rough for you, but I'm back and you'll never be alone from now on, I promise!_"

_Just when Sakura was about to answer back, Naruto suddenly vanished into thin air leaving her alone once again and crying uncontrollably as she screamed at the top of her lungs._

"_NOOOOOOOO!_"

_**End Dream**_

Sakura immediately sprang up from her bed as sweat dripped off her body. Her heart was beating fast and using some of her chakra, she calmed herself down. "It was only a dream, but it felt so real…"

Once Sakura had calmed down enough she looked outside the window to see that the sun was coming up. She thought about sleeping in a little bit longer, but after the dream she just had, she didn't dare fall asleep again. Sakura decided to get dressed first and enjoy her day since Tsunade had given her the day off. She thought about getting something to eat first, but felt a shower was needed first. She stripped off her nightwear and threw it to the ground. Sakura took a moment to look at her reflection in the mirror moving her hands down towards her still flat stomach and wondering if she was really pregnant.

"If I'm already pregnant as Kushina mentioned last night, why haven't I felt any effects of it yet? Was she lying?"

As if something were answering her question Sakura suddenly felt sick to her stomach and ran over to the toilet and began to throw up. It went on for a few minutes before finally subsiding and once Sakura felt she didn't need to empty her stomach anymore, she stood up slowly and put her hand on her stomach again. "I guess that answers my question, but still it's hard to believe that I am… I really wish Naruto could be here."

Sakura was on the verge of tears once again as she thought about how her life could have been if Naruto were still alive. "No! I can't let those thoughts get to me right now… I have to be strong! Not only for myself but…"

Sakura gently brushed a hand across her stomach and smiled as she continued. "… Our unborn child. It's what Naruto would want me to do. He may not be here, but he lives on within his child and I'll make sure to tell him or her that their father was a great man and how much he loved us."

Sakura wiped the tears from her eyes and finally got in the shower. Forty-five minutes later Sakura emerged from the bathroom fully dressed in her training gear deciding to skip out on breakfast since she didn't feel like eating and thought training would be the best way to spend her day.

It didn't take her too long to reach the training fields and lucky there was no one around so she could get in some training before either Sasuke, Kakashi, or one of the other members of Konoha's shinobi interrupted her solo training. Sakura went at it for a good hour or so before she need to rest. She sat down and had a drink of water before her vision started to get blurry and she blacked out.

She woke up hours later and found herself in a very familiar place. "The hospital? How'd I get here?"

"I see that you're finally awake Sakura."Sakura turned her head to see who was talking to her and it was none other than Tsunade who looked at her curiously as Sakura answered back. "Shishou!"

"If you're curious as to who found you Sakura, it was Kakashi and he seemed rather concerned. What happened to you out there? Usually you're never one to pass out while training"

"I wish I could say shishou, but perhaps it's due to not eating anything this morning."

"That could be one of the reasons Sakura or perhaps it's to due with the fact that you're pregnant?"

Sakura suddenly felt sick to her stomach, but ignored it; her mind was in a frenzy trying to think of an excuse to deny that she was pregnant. "I don't know what you're talking about shishou… it's probably just misread information."

Tsunade raised her eyebrows at Sakura's denial of being pregnant."Oh really Sakura? Would you care to explain how I felt another chakra signature from within your body as I examined you for any wounds then?"

Sakura knew she had been caught red handed and there was no denying it now, she lowered her head as she spoke up. "I… uh… I planned on telling you soon shishou, but I didn't know how you'd take it. I thought you'd be mad at me for it…"

Sakura couldn't finish her sentence as her conflicting emotions got the better of her, and tears began to well up in her eyes. She turned her head away in shame so Tsunade couldn't see her, but she was surprised when she felt Tsunade wrap her arms around Sakura, bringing her into a hug and she looked at Tsunade's expression which had softened.

"Sakura… there's no reason for you to feel ashamed. It's just a shock to know that you are pregnant, but then again the way Naruto and you must have gone at it, it's probably not a surprise."

Sakura's face reddened slightly at Tsunade's comment as she lightly jabbed her. "Shishou!"

Tsunade had a good laugh before her expression returned to normal. "How did this happen exactly Sakura?"

"Well, if you really want to know shishou, it all started last night…" Sakura went on to explain the events of last night and how she met Kushina and how she was pregnant and had the Uzumaki's special chakra within her system now and to her surprise Tsunade took it all in stride, like she was expecting it to happen or something. She put a hand on Sakura's shoulder as she answered back.

"As much as I want to say what you told me is bullshit Sakura, but for some reason I believe you. Anyway, I'd let you leave the hospital, but just to make sure everything is okay, I'm keeping you in the hospital overnight. By the way Sakura…" Tsunade reached into her robe pocket and pulled something out. She threw it at Sakura who caught the mysterious item and looked at it to see that it was a yellow hair clip.

"A clip? What do you want me to do with this shishou?"

"If you haven't noticed Sakura, your hair has grown just a tad more in the last two months and part of your hair is starting to cover the left side of your face. I'd suggest you wear that clip if you want keep it out of your face."

Sakura nodded as she took the hair clip and attached it to the left side of her hair and found that it had taken care of the annoyance. She turned to thank Tsunade, but found that she had left and thought she had other things to take care of it. She settled into her hospital bed and fell asleep.

**One Month Later…**

Another month had passed by and still there was no sign of Naruto. Tsunade had done her best to search for him by sending out ANBU, but they didn't have any luck either. They had both accepted that Naruto was dead and they needed to move on with their lives. Even Jiraiya who had spent the last two months looking for Naruto finally decided to throw in the towel. He was upset at himself for not being able to find his student, but Tsunade was there to ease his mind and they drowned in their sorrows by drinking and remembering the good times they had with Naruto and how he affected them.

Sakura though was still taking it the hardest of anyone. She would find herself crying for unknown reasons as she looked at Naruto's old stuff and told herself to be strong, but it was hard to put those memories behind her especially when he had left her with a child and she would have to be the one to raise it alone, by herself.

Sasuke had tried his best to help Sakura in any way he could and Sakura could only guess it was to make up for all of the mental pain he had caused them when he was younger and for that she was thankful. The rest of the Konoha twelve also did their best to fill in that void, but it only helped for so long. Sakura had chosen to stay home and skip out on going to the local restaurant with everyone else since she was too tired and her pregnancy was starting to catch up to her.

Sakura stood out on the small balcony of her apartment looking down at her now slightly protruding stomach and talked to it. "I wonder what you'll be like. Will you be like your father or will you take after me? I really wish he was here though.."

Standing out here on her balcony reminded Sakura so much of that dream she had where Naruto would show up and after trying to hold him he'd disappear. It was almost as if fate was playing a cruel joke on her showing her just a bit of happiness and then tearing it away from her. She let a few tears escape as she buried her head into her hands in hopes that no one would hear her. Somehow she must have been tired and fell asleep on the railing's edge and awoke a few hours later to complete darkness.

Sakura felt embarrassed falling asleep outside and proceeded to walk inside the apartment when she heard a voice call out to her.

"Sakura-chan?"

The way the person implied her name sounded so familiar and no one would ever call her Sakura-chan unless it was someone playing a joke on her. Nevertheless Sakura walked back towards the edge of the railing and peered down to see a person standing not too far from the entrance to the apartment. She couldn't make out his figure since the darkness and the cloak he was wearing hid his features, but what he did next shocked her. He ran up the side of the building and settled right in front of Sakura. She took a step back and felt frightened as the mysterious figure jumped down. The cloak still covered his face as he moved forward towards Sakura who at this point decided that it was best to fight and drew a kunai. She swung at him, but missed due to her pregnancy slowing her down and the mysterious figure grabbed her hand holding it there.

"Get your hands off me you creep!"

Sakura took another swing at the person and he caught her hand. It was then she could finally see under his hood and caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were as blue as the oceans and shined with a familiar presence. Sakura was lost in them and suddenly found her hands let go of by the stranger as he spoke up to her. "You still haven't changed one bit Sakura-chan…"

"Who are you and why do you keeping calling me Sakura-chan?"

The stranger kept up his smile as he stepped back a few inches and placed his hands on his hood. "I suppose it would be better if I removed this…"

With that the strange removed his hood and Sakura swore she felt her heart skip a few beats at who she saw. The man is front of her sported a traveler's cloak and underneath it was a different set of clothes, but what stood out about him was his blonde unruly hair that was somewhat longer and his blue eyes that she had caught site of when he grabbed her, and the three whisker like marks on each of his cheeks. Those could only belong to one person, and that was Naruto.

Sakura didn't need to second guess as she jumped at Naruto and he caught Sakura as tears began to well up in her eyes letting everything out she hadn't been able to in the last three months. Naruto soon joined in with tears of his own as he spoke up to Sakura. "It's all right Sakura-chan, I'm here now. There's no reason for you to cry."

Sakura heard the almost exact same line in her dream and after that Naruto had disappeared leaving her with nothing. Just to make sure it wasn't a dream Sakura lifted her hands up to Naruto's face and gently caressed his whiskers marks surprising him. He didn't seem to mind as he in turn caressed one of her cheeks. Sakura held his hand to her face as she continued to cry. "This isn't a dream; you're actually here before me Naruto?"

"If I wasn't real Sakura-chan, would I be able to do this?" Naruto captured Sakura's lips in a kiss and it felt real enough. She happily returned it as they held the kiss before breaking it a few moments later and resting their heads against each other, letting their tears mix as Sakura broke the silence between them.

"Naruto… I'm so glad that you're alive. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Naruto softly smiled at Sakura as he lightly kissed her on the lips. "I don't know either Sakura-chan, but I'm glad to be back."

"Yes, that means we can finally be a proper family Naruto."

"Family, What do you mean Sakura-chan?"

Sakura smiled at Naruto as she gently grabbed both of his hands and placed them on her stomach. "I know you weren't expecting this so soon Naruto, but you're going to be a father. I'm pregnant…"

Naruto didn't answer back right away and it worried Sakura. Was he mad at her telling him that she was pregnant with his child or was he just too shocked for words? Sakura got her answer as Naruto finally spoke up.

"I never would have… wow… it's so much to take in right now. I think I need to sit."

Despite his initial shock Sakura could see the happiness in his eyes and smiled as she wrapped one of her hands around his and dragged him back into their apartment. Sakura woke up the next morning feeling fearful that last night was just some wonderful dream, but when she saw Naruto sleeping peacefully next to her, she let a smile cross her face as she played with some of his hair. _"It's good to finally have you back Naruto."_

That morning Naruto and Sakura went straight to the Hokage's office and surprised both Tsunade and Jiraiya. Their initial reaction was that of laughter since they thought it was some sort of genjustu, but after looking at him a little bit more they realized it was the real Naruto and he was met with hugs and crying from Tsunade who nearly crushed him as she held onto him tight. Jiraiya just ruffled his hair and smiled at Naruto welcoming him home. Once the reunions were done Naruto had a chance to explain what had happened to him in the three months he was gone.

He explained that after the battle with Orochimaru the impact from their attacks sent the both of them flying in different directions, but Naruto was sure that he defeated Orochimaru with his rasenshuriken. He was badly injured and thought he couldn't go on and had a near death experience where he met his parents who told him that it wasn't his time to die just yet and when he awoke he found himself in a bed somewhere strange. It seems as though a passerby had seen Naruto's unconscious body and brought him back to their farm where they nursed him back to health. He would have gone back to Konoha sooner, but he felt inclined to help the farmer too pay him back for his kindness. That was about a month and a half ago from what Naruto said and it earned him a bop on the head from both Sakura and Tsunade who were furious at him for not returning sooner and causing them unneeded anguish and despite their actions, they were glad to finally have him home.

Another week passed as Naruto was steadily busy explaining to the rest of his friends where he was at and he had stayed out much longer on those days. It made Sakura worried since he would come back home at night and not say anything to her. She was afraid that he was seeing someone else and finally decided to confront him about his unusually late activities. "Naruto, why have you been out so late last few days?"

"Well, err… I really can't explain Sakura-chan since I want to keep it a secret."

"What do you mean keep a secret?" Sakura let her temper get the best of her and she grabbed Naruto by his shirt and shook him until a pinging noise caught her attention. She looked down at the floor to see a ring had fallen out of Naruto's pocket. She let go of Naruto and picked up the ring only for to be quickly taken from her as Naruto flushed red with embarrassment.

"Naruto is that what I think it is?"

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head trying to think of an excuse to hide the fact that he had gotten Sakura an engagement ring and wanted to propose to her at the right time, but since she already saw it was best to ask now he thought. Naruto nervously got down on one knee and presented the engagement ring to Sakura.

"Yes, it is Sakura-chan… I just wanted to say that…" Naruto hesitated with his words as he got more nervous by the second, but he steeled himself as he continued on. "… I've never been the best with words Sakura-chan, but I just want to say that I really couldn't see myself spending the rest of my life without you. Will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?"

Naruto could hear Sakura gasp at his sudden proposal and took it for the worse. Had he proposed to her too soon or was she having second thoughts about him? His doubts were erased as he felt Sakura wrap her arms around him and spoke up to him in a rather choked voice.

"Yes, I'll marry you Naruto Uzumaki! I couldn't see myself without you either…" Sakura's cries drowned out her talking as Naruto softly smiled and gently put the engagement ring on her finger. Things would definitely get interesting from here on out, but one thing was certain, the future was looking bright for the young couple.


	15. L'oiseau Du Bonheur

Naruto couldn't believe it had been two and a half months since he had proposed to Sakura and word spread quickly about his engagement. While a lot of people were shocked at the news, many people were happy for the both of them, especially Naruto since he finally got the happiness he deserved and today was the day where he finally married Sakura and like any normal guy, Naruto was quite nervous so he kept on readjusting his formal attire.

"Naruto, there's no reason for you to keep adjusting your suit, its fine…"

Naruto turned his head slightly to see Sasuke standing behind him and quickly gave him a smile as he turned around to fully face Sasuke. "Yeah… I guess you're right Sasuke, but I'm just having per-wedding jitters…"

Sasuke put both of his hands on Naruto's shoulders and gave him a brief smile before answering back. "It's normal for you to feel nervous Naruto, hell I'd probably pass out by now, but you shouldn't let this get to you Naruto. If anything, Sakura is probably as nervous as you are."

"You're right Sasuke…" Before Naruto finished his sentence the door to his room opened and Jiraiya walked in looking rather embarrassed and there seemed to be a red mark across his face. He didn't say anything to Naruto or Sasuke as he sat down on the nearest chair he could find. "Hey Ero-Sennin! You're just in time to help me go over my speech… by the way, what happened to your face?"

"I'd rather not talk about it Naruto…"

Naruto smirked as he pulled out a piece of paper and began talking to Jiraiya as if he were Sakura while Sasuke watched on and let a smirk also cross his face.

_"I guess Jiraiya-sama got caught peeking in on the girls and paid for it… speaking of which, I wonder how Sakura is doing at the moment?"_

**With Sakura**

"I'm so nervous! I don't know if I can go out there looking like this!" Sakura looked at herself in the full length mirror. Instead of wearing a dress like her mother had wanted Sakura opted to wear a kimono since it hid her growing stomach and being almost six months pregnant, she was quite hormonal and every little detail had to be just right. Her mother was busy attending to her long pink hair trying to get it to stay, but at the moment it was refusing and Sakura didn't make things better by constantly moving.

"Sakura, honey, stop moving so much so I can finish putting your hair up into a bun."

"Sorry…"

Sakura stopped moving so her mother could finally finish up her hair and once she was done she admired her handy work. She let a few tears escape her eyes as she looked at Sakura.

"Mom is something wrong?"

Sakura's mother wiped the tears from her eyes before she answered back. "No, honey, I'm just emotional because I'm finally seeing my daughter get married and it reminds me so much of my wedding. In fact the kimono you're wearing is the same exact one I wore on my wedding day."

Sakura was about to answer back when the door to her room opened and Ino and Hinata walked in carrying something. "It's about time the both of you got back here! What took you so long?"

"Sorry Haruno-sama, but it wasn't exactly easy to find sakura petals, especially at this time of the year. We actually had to go to a specialty shop that sold them."

"But you got the required amount right Ino?"

"Of course we did."

Sakura watched on curiously as her mother, Ino, and Hinata began assembling the sakura petals into something and a few minutes later they stood before her with them arranged in a bouquet handing them to her.

"What exactly do you want me to do with this?"

"Well, Sakura I guess I should have told you a bit more about Haruno family traditions, but each time a female member of the clan gets married, its tradition for the female to carry a bouquet of sakura petals. It's said to reflect her feelings towards the man she loves and when she tosses the bouquet and whoever catches it is supposed to be blessed, and they will find their true love."

Sakura didn't answer because there was a sudden knock on the door and Kakashi popped his head in. "Sorry to interrupt everyone, but Hokage-sama wishes for us to get this ceremony started since the crowd is getting anxious."

"All right Kakashi, let us make a few last minute adjustments and we'll be out there."

Kakashi nodded as he left the girls alone and proceeded to where the guys were. He told them the same thing and they were about to leave when Naruto froze up in fear. His legs suddenly gave out on him and it took Sasuke and Jiraiya to drag him out of the room as Kakashi watched on with a smile on his face. _"Too be young again…"_

Tsunade watched on as neither Naruto nor Sakura had yet to show up. It had been ten minutes since she had sent Kakashi to go get them. She wondered if maybe Naruto or Sakura got cold feet and didn't want the ceremony to proceed and she really couldn't blame them either. It had been Sakura's mother that had gotten everything together. The day after Naruto had proposed to Sakura, her mother found out and immediately began to arrange their wedding since she thought it was better to get it out of the way before the baby came.

She had a chance to speak to the both of them before the ceremony and the both of them had said the same thing to her. They were nervous, but at the same time excited. It reminded her so much of Minato and Kushina's wedding, although that was in secret, but the both of them acted the same as Naruto and Sakura. Her thoughts were interrupted as she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Kakashi who pointed towards the entrance of Hokage Tower. Sasuke and Jiraiya were the first to appear and lagging behind them was Naruto who seemed a little nervous still as he walked down the makeshift altar. He gave Tsunade a soft smile before looking back towards Hokage Tower.

It wasn't long before Ino and Hinata appeared walking down the aisle and taking their place besides Sasuke and Jiraiya. They both gave Naruto a soft smile and nodded their heads letting him know that everything was going to be okay. Sakura appeared next and Naruto swore he felt his heart stop as she walked down the aisle. She looked beautiful before, but there was just something about the kimono that made her look even more beautiful. Sakura blushed e as she got a good look at Naruto and thought he looked quite handsome too. Her mother smiled as she handed off Sakura to him and whispered something in his ear. "Take good care of her Naruto."

Naruto smiled briefly before answering back. "Don't worry, I plan too."

Once the crowd had settled down and Naruto and Sakura had gotten over their per-wedding jitters, Tsunade began the ceremony. "I'm glad that you all came. Today marks a special occasion in the Leaf village and a rare one I might add. Today we are gathered to see the union of two of our brightest and best shinobi, Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno. They have been teammates for six years and although four of those years were separated by training, they have not let that stop them from loving each other. As Hokage, I am proud of what they have done in their young lives and I couldn't be more excited to unite them today. I ask before continuing is there anyone that objects to this union? Speak now or forever hold your peace!"

There was silence among the crowd and no one bothered to speak up, but then again it was probably the presence of ANBU Black Ops that kept everyone silent. Tsunade had personally made sure they kept out the low lives and kept the peace since she didn't want anything to ruin Naruto and Sakura's wedding. Once Tsunade felt it was safe to proceed, she continued talking. "Now usually I'd say a long heartfelt speech before letting the bride and groom talk, but I feel as though I've said enough, so would either one of you like to say something?"

"I'd like to say something actually…" Naruto reached into his pant pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He looked at it for a few seconds before shoving it back into his pants and softly smiling at Sakura as he spoke. "Like I've said before Sakura-chan, I've never been the best with words, but what I feel for you is something truly special. When I first set my eyes on you, I knew you were the one that I loved and wanted to be with. Your heart may have belonged to other at first, but I vowed to myself that I wouldn't give up until you saw what was reflected in my heart and now that you do, I can truly say that I love you Sakura. You'll always have my heart for now and forever."

Naruto blushed red as he finished his speech and it caused some of the crowd to actually cry, they were touched by Naruto's words and the others had to hold back their tears. Sakura herself was crying freely and allowed them to flow as she spoke.

"I've always loved you too Naruto and what I feel for you is the same. At first I thought of you as an annoying brat that wanted attention and nothing more. It wasn't until we spent time together as a team and grew together that I realized what I felt for you was more than just admiration. It was love, pure and simple. I'm glad that you never gave up on me because I couldn't see myself without you. My heart is also yours Naruto and I promise from now on you'll never be alone like you were as a child."

The reaction was slightly stronger to Sakura's speech as the crowd couldn't contain themselves and they began to cry and eventually cheered for both Naruto and Sakura. Once the cheering had died down Tsunade continued on with the ceremony, she presented the couple with their rings that would tie them together, although they weren't really needed. She gave one of the rings to Naruto and the other to Sakura as they said a few things to each other before finally slipping the rings on each other's fingers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Uzumaki!"

The crowd once again erupted into cheers as Naruto and Sakura shared their first kiss as husband and wife. They broke off the kiss a few moments later and Naruto picked up Sakura and carried her down the aisle while a few of the males in the crowd whistled knowing exactly what they were going to do making them both blush in embarrassment.

**Three months later…**

It had been quite an exciting last three months for Naruto and Sakura as they spent the first two weeks as newlyweds on vacation with Naruto spoiling Sakura to the best of his ability while trying to make sure he didn't overdo it with Sakura on the account of her pregnancy and once they had gotten home they decided it was time to move out of Naruto's old apartment and into a bigger place. Naruto had taken up extra missions to pay for the cost of the new apartment, but he could only take on D ranked missions since Tsunade prohibited him from going out on any long term missions because of obvious reasons.

Naruto came home from doing another D ranked mission and although he wasn't tired he felt bushed because Sakura had kept him up the last few nights with her constant worrying. He entered his new apartment and barely sat down when he heard Sakura scream from the next room.

"Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto immediately rushed into his room to see that Sakura was hunched over holding her stomach in pain. "Sakura-chan! What's wrong?"

"Hospital now…" Those were the only words Sakura got out as she clenched her stomach and almost fell down, but Naruto caught her and immediately rushed off towards the hospital. He reached the hospital a few minutes later and the nurse at the front desk seemed to know what was going on and some of the other nurses helped Sakura onto a gurney and took her down the hall. Naruto tried to follow, but he was stopped by one of the nurses saying that the area was off limits to civilians. Naruto wanted to argue with her, but knew it was useless. He silently nodded and took a seat in the waiting room. Tsunade showed up a few minutes later and reassured Naruto that everything would be okay before joining the nurses that were helping Sakura through her labor pains. Naruto could hear her screams and wished he could there with her. _"Hang in there Sakura-chan. I know you'll get through this…"_

The hours seemed to drag by as Naruto drifted in and out of sleep only to be woken up by Sakura's screams that seemed to intensify within the last few hours. He had lost track of time, but Naruto estimated he had been at the hospital for the last thirteen hours. Eventually he heard Sakura's screams subside and a few moments of silence before the doors opened to reveal Tsunade who had a rather large smile on her face.

"Sorry to keep you waiting for so long Naruto, but mother and child are peacefully resting. You're free to go see them."

Naruto nodded at Tsunade and nervously walked through the doors to the room where Sakura and his newborn child were. He was so excited that he forgot to ask Tsunade if it was a boy or girl, but he was about to answer it for himself as he gently knocked on the door and heard Sakura whisper come in.

He closed the door behind him and turned to see Sakura looking at him with a smile. Naruto could tell she was utterly exhausted, her pink hair was matted to her back and forehead, sweat gleamed off her fair skin, but despite all that she still held onto her smile as she cradled the small bundle in her arms.

"Would you like to meet your son Naruto?"

Naruto didn't say anything as he took a seat next to Sakura and looked at his newborn son. He looked exactly like Naruto with his patch of blonde hair albeit his skin was much lighter and he didn't have the three whisker marks on each side of his face. The baby began to stir as he yawned and opened his eyes slowly to reveal that he had gotten Sakura's emerald eyes and they were full of wonder as he looked back at his father curiously. Waves of emotions were going through Naruto's heart, but the most prominent one he was feeling was happiness. He cried a little as he spoke up to his son for the first time.

"Hey there little one… I'm your father." Naruto raised his hand to touch his son and he reacted by grabbing one of Naruto's fingers, giggling as he did. A few more tears escaped Naruto's eyes as he turned his attention back to Sakura who seemed to be enjoying the attention he was giving to his son. "We still haven't decided on a name for him have we?"

"No, we haven't, but we've talked about it before he was born remember?"

"I remember Sakura-chan and are you sure it's okay we call him that?"

Sakura softly smiled at Naruto and kissed him on the cheek before answering back. "I'm sure Naruto."

Naruto softly smiled at his son as he gently caressed one of his cheeks.

"From now on you'll be known as Minato." Minato seemed to like his name because he responded by giggling again before yawning and closing his eyes, falling asleep in Sakura's arms. It wasn't long before Sakura fell asleep herself and Naruto decided to leave his family alone so they could get some rest, but he found Sakura holding onto his arm almost as if she didn't want him to leave. Naruto quietly kicked off his sandals and joined his family in bed drifting off into a peaceful sleep. This was only the beginning for Naruto's family and there was much more to come, but as long as they had their bonds, that would be more than enough to see them through the toughest of times.

**Author's note: Well, there you have it folks, the ending to **_**Reflection of Two Hearts**_**. I remember starting this story back in May thinking it would take much longer than originally planned and I'm glad I ended it where I did. Naruto gets the happy ending he deserves and I hope it's too everyone likes. I'm not too sure if there will be a sequel to the story, but I may surprise everyone in the future, for now though I intend to leave the story as it is. I'm going to be taking a break for the rest of August so I can focus on college, but in early September I have plans for a new story. I'm not too sure what it will be about, but I promise it will be exciting. I'd also like to once again thank everyone that's reviewed and favorite this story, without your continued support, I doubt this story would have seen the end. Thanks once again!**


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